OUR 


A  Mirror  in  which  "  Trees  can  be  seen  as  Men  Walking," 


I  have  not  approved,  and  do  not  no^  approve,  of  the  financial  poUcy  pursued  hy  our  Government  for 
the  last  six  years.  I  think  "we  have  thrown  away  our  billions,  and  are  still  throwing  away  our  millions,  by 
mismanagement.— Hon.  Thad.  Stevens. 


BY  S.  P.  TOWNSEND. 


KEW  YORK  : 
MACDONALD  &  SWA]^^K,  PKINTERS,  37  PARK  ROW. 

1  86  8. 


FLENSE    READ    AjSTD    C  I  R  C  TJ  L  A  T  E  . 


NATIONAL  FINANCES.! 


 ^  

I  spoke  in  the  interest  of  the  Republican  party,  to  which  I  look  for  the  future  of  the  country,  for  whatever  ij 
party  shall  take  upon  itself  the  burden  of  this  unjust  taxation,  this  financial  system  by  which  the  "rich  are 
made  richer  and  the  poor  poorer,"  will  surely  be  overthrown,  and  after  that  comes  the  deluge.— G-en.  Butler. 


x»iiese:vteo  to  tite 

Minnesota  ^istorkal  ^otwtg, 


OUR  NATIONAL  FINANCES, 


TABLE    OF  CONTENTS: 

INTRODUCTION  AND  EXPLANATION. 

THE  DEFEAT  OF  THE  REPUBLICANS  AT  THE  STATE  ELECTIONS,  Etc,  Etc. 

PRESIDENT  JOHNSON'S  MESSAGE  ON  THE  FINANCES. 

THE  REPORT  oF  THE  SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY,  Etc. 

THE  REPORT  OF  MR.  WELLS,  SPECIAL  COMMISSIONER  OF  THE  REVENUE, 
MR.  SPINNER'S  LETTER,  Etc. 

IMMEDIATE  RESUMPTION  OF  SPECIE  PAYMENTS,  THE  COTTON  TAX,  THE 
"NIGGERS,"  LONG  BONDS,  HON.  THAD.  STEVENS,  B.  F.  BUTLER,  Etc. 

THE  REPORT  OF  THE  CHAMBER  OF  COMMERCE,  DECLINE  OF  SHIP  BUILD- 
ING, Etc.   a  Rich  Chapter. 

THE  OHIO  STATESMAN:  WHAT  IS  MONEY? 

AN  OLD  FALSEHOOD  EXPOSED. 

THE  NATIONAL  BANKS. 

A    FALSE  ACCUSATION. 

THE  SITUATION  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  STATES. 

INCONSISTENCIES  OF  MERCHANTS,  FARMERS,  MECHANICS  ;  THE  INSOLENCE 
OF  CAPITALISTS ;  THE  HON.  MR.  SPAULDING'S  LETTER  TO 
GOV.  MORGAN;  WHAT'S  COMING,  Etc. 

USURY  THE  CURSE  OF  CIVILIZATION;  THE  PRICE  OF  MONEY;  DESCRIPTION 
OF  CAPITALISTS— ASTOR,   STEWART,  VANDERBILT,  DREW; 
GEN.  GRANT ;  THE  SENATE,  CONGRESS,  Etc.,  Etc. 

BY  S.  P.  TOWNSEND. 

NEW  YORK: 
J" -A- IT xj -A. ^  lo,  ises. 


Dye  /  o?^>'2^  So^ 


Avery  Architectural  and  Fine  Arts  Library 
Gift  of  Seymour  B.  Durst  Old  York  Library 


INTEODUOTION  AND  EXPLANATION. 


OuE  first  object  in  publishing  this  Pamphlet  is  to  demonstrate  that  it 
is  the  imperative  duty  of  Congress  to  reduce  the  rate  of  interest  on  money ; 
to  show  that  it  is  feasible  and  practicable;  that  justice^  and  economy  de- 
mand it ;  that  it  can  be  accomplished  and  be  of  incalculable  benefit  to 
the  masses,  lessening  the  public  burdens,  and  enormously  increasing  the 
industry  and  wealth  of  the  country. 

That  the  requirements  and  genius  of  our  free  institutions  demand  our 
statesmen  to  ignore  the  financial  policy  and  theories  adopted  by  the  mo- 
narchical governments ;  that  these  systems  are  no  better  suited  for  a  free 
people  than  their  forms  of  government,  which  are  oppressive,  subverting 
the  liberties,  tlie  rights  and  property  of  the  people. 

We  wish  to  show  that  the  President  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
are  using  the  money  in  the  Treasury,  or  rather  have  been  destroying  it, 
for  the  purpose  of  destroying  the  prosperity  of  the  people,  and  conse- 
quently the  Republican  party. 

Congress  authorized  the  Secretary,  at  his  urgent  request,  to  have  the 
power  to  fund  the  Treasury  notes  and  contract  the  currency.  They  granted 
the  power,  but  restricted  him  to  ten  millions  of  dollars  the  first  six  months, 
and  four  millions  of  dollars  per  month  after  the  expiration  of  six  months. 
How  did  he  use  that  authority?  Within  twenty-one  months  he  redeemed 
of  compound  and  legal-tender  Treasury  notes  one  hundred  and  fifty  mil- 
lion of  dollars^  which  cost  the  merchants  and  producers  at  least  one  thou- 
sand millions  of  money  in  the  reduction  of  business  and  prices.  And  in 
the  three  months  previoits  to  the  election  he  reduced  the  currency  $43,- 
473,506,  or  over  fourteen  millions  per  month.  The  sudden  curtailment  of 
this  immense  amount,  and  the  cry  for  contraction  and  resumption  of  spe- 
cie payments  made  by  leading  Pepublicans — with  factories  closing  and 
wails  of  distress  coming  from  all  parts  of  the  Union ;  with  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  men  in  New  York  and  Xew  Jersey  out  of  employment,  and 
the  price  of  wool  in  Ohio  reduced  from  seventy-five  cents  and  one  dollar 
to  twenty  and  twenty-five  cents  per  pound — was  the  cause  of  the  apathy 
and  defeat  of  the  Kepublican  party  at  the  late  elections. 

Congress  has  passed  an  anti-contraction  bill  ;  but  there  is  fifty-six 
millions  of  dollars  of  compound  interest  Treasury  notes  to  be  retired 
before  the  16th  of  October,  1868.    These  notes  are  held  by  the  banks  as 


4 


OUE  NATIONAL  FINANCES. 


a  portion  of  their  reserve  fund  in  place  of  legal-tender  Treasury  notes, 
and,  if  not  prevented,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  will  fund  the  entire 
amount  just  before  the  coming  Presidential  election,  and  create  another 
panic  for  the  benefit  of  his  Democratic  and  secesh  friends.  The  banks 
being  required  by  law  to  keep  in  their  vaults  a  surplus  of  twenty-five 
per  cent,  in  compound  interest  or  legal-tender  Treasury  notes,  will  be 
obliged  to  replace  those  withdrawn  by  greenbacks ;  and  it  will  have  the 
same  disastrous  effect  as  it  would  to  cancel  and  destroy  fifty- six  millions 
of  currency. 

Then  we  shall  have  the  Secretary  playing  the  same  diabolical  game 
that  he  has  at  the  previous  elections — of  suddenly  calling  upon  the  banks 
all  over  the  country  for  the  Government  deposits,  so  as  to  derange,  cripple 
and  destroy  the  finances  and  the  Eepublican  party,  which  is  his  chief  aim 
and  business.  Belmont  and  the  European  bankers,  the  bullionists  and 
bond-holders,  will  urge  the  President  and  Secretary  to  destroy  the  Gov- 
ernment money  and  resume  specie  payment,  to  increase  their  hoards,  and 
they  will  willingly,  to  the  best  of  their  abilities,  comply,  knowing  that 
this  is  the  most  effective  means  of  restoring  the  Democrats  to  power. 

We  shall  show  that  it  is  the  duty  of  our  Hepublican  Congress  to  in- 
crease the  circulation  of  Government  money,  in  order  to  thwart  the 
schemes  of  Belmont,  Johnson  &  Co.,  and  propel  and  encourage  trade, 
industry  and  production.  It  is  a  shame  and  disgrace  in  a  country  like 
ours  to  have  a  man  or  horse,  a  steam  engine  or  mill,  stand  idle  a  single 
moment  for  want  of  money  to  employ  them,  when  the  Government  can 
create  it  at  pleasure,  and  which  will  purchase  its  own  five  per  cent,  gold 
bonds  at  par,  reducing  its  liabilities,  and  setting  in  motion  all  of  the 
activities  and  industries  of  a  great,  rich  and  prosperous  nation ;  accom- 
plishing the  treble  miracle  of  decreasing  the  Government  debt,  reducing 
the  amount  of  taxes  to  be  collected,  and  vastly  augmenting  the  happiness 
and  wealth  of  the  country. 

We  wish  to  show  that  the  President  and  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
deserve  impeachment;  more  especially  the  latter,  for  slandering  the  peo- 
ple, the  money,  the  credit  and  the  finances  of  the  nation.  That  the  Mes- 
sage and  the  Peport  of  the  Secretary  are  overflowing  with  false  and  per- 
nicious statements,  calculated  to  degrade  the  people  and  the  Government. 

The  accusations  that  the  people  are  idle  and  demoralized,  and  that  our 
trade  and  industries  are  paralyzed  in  consequence  of  "a  redundant  and 
degraded  currency,"  is  a  malicious  slander.  The  charge  that  building 
and  improvements  are  suspended  is  a  gross  perversion  of  truth,  and  cal- 
culated^ coming  from  the  highest  officers  in  the  Government,  to  injure  the 


INTRODUCTION  AND  EXPLANATION.  6 


credit  of  our  bonds,  to  underrate  tlie  intelligence  and  virtue  of  the  peo- 
ple, and  liold  them  and  our  free  institutions  in  such  a  light  as  to  seriously 
affect  the  credit  of  the  nation. 

We  are  compelled  to  believe  that  Messrs.  Johnson,  McCulloch  &  Co. 
have  adopted  financial  measures  for  the  purpose  of  further  impoverishing 
the  South,  in  order  to  create  confusion,  dissatisfaction  and  anarchy,  and 
to  prevent  reconstruction  on  any  plan  excepting  the  one  proposed  by  the 
destructionists ;  and  wo  contend  that  the  people  of  the  Southern  States, 
both  white  and  colored,  considering  the  situation  they  were  in  at  the  close 
of  the  Eebellion,  and  the  limited  means  at  their  disposal,  have  been  re- 
markably peaceful,  successful  and  industrious. 

We  shall  endeavor  to  establish  the  fact  that  the  men  who  declaim  the 
loudest  for  "  economy  "  are  the  persons  who  are  frantically  urging  meas- 
ures upon  Congress  which,  if  adopted,  will  defraud  the  public  and  the 
Government  of  thousands  of  millions  of  dollars.  They  charge  the  people 
with  extravagance  and  advocate  the  issue  of  long  honds  bearing  excessive, 
ruinous  rates  of  usury,  and  which  would  consume  the  substance  of  the 
country,  or  deposit  it  in  their  coffers,  to  be  expended  in  foreign  travel  and 
extravagant  excesses.  They  talk  of  taxing  "  the  luxuries,"  but  do  not 
consider  that  five  and  six  per  cent,  gold  bearing  bonds  and  incomes  that 
exceed  $10,000  per  annum  are  the  greatest  and  most  pernicious  of  all  lux- 
uries, and  should  be  the  most  heavily  taxed. 

The  issue  of  long  honds^  we  shall  prove,  if  they  call  for  a  higher  rate 
of  interest  than  three  per  cent,  per  annum,  would  be  a  crime  of  the  great- 
est magnitude,  destructive  of  the  people's  rights  and  privileges,  and  would 
destroy  the  Republican  party,  if  not  the  nation,  if  the  party  are  so  un- 
wise or  thoughtless  as  to  adopt  so  deadly  a  policy. 

We  shall  endeavor  to  prove  that  our  Treasury  notes  are  real  honafide 
dollars — bills  of  credit "  issued  in  conformity  to  the  very  letter  of  the 
Constitution,  and  are  the  valid  and  legal  currency  of  the  country,  and 
should  not  be  destroyed,  but  used  to  "fix  the  value  (of  money)  thereof" 
and  reduce  the  rate  of  interest  to  three  per  cent.,  which  can  be  justly, 
wisely  and  constitutionally  accomplished,  to  the  enormous  benefit  of  the 
people  and  Government.  That  this  is  one  of  the  richest  nations  in  the 
world,  and  should  pay  no  higher  rates  for  the  use  of  money  than  the  most 
favored  nation  on  the  globe. 

We  propose  to  show  that  the  Government  should  gradually,  during 
the  next  five  ^^ears,  increase  the  United  States  Treasurj^  notes  in  circula- 
tion to  one  thousand  millions  of  dollars,  and  that  Congress  should  author- 
ize an  issue  of  fifteen  hundred  millions  of  dollars  of  three  per  cent,  bonds, 


6 


OUK  NATIONAL  FINAISTCES. 


payable  in  thirty  or  forty^  years  ;  wliicli  would  reduce  the  amount  of  inter- 
est to  be  collected  from  one  hundred  and  fifty  to  forty-five  millions  of  dol- 
lars per  annum,  and  to  demonstrate  that  this  is  as  high  a  rate  as  the  peo- 
ple can  pay,  or  should  be  required  to  pay. 

AVe  have  been  accused  by  the  press  of  endeavoring  to  create  prejudice 
and  array  the  poor  against  the  rich.  But  our  object  has  been,  and  is,  the 
very  reverse.  We  wish  that  the  country  may,  by  adopting  wise  legisla- 
tion, give  the  industrial  classes  no  just  cause  to  complain,  and  thus  disarm 
prejudice  and  prevent  any  unreasonable  demands  upon  the  more  fortunate 
classes.  The  only  mode  to  avoid  confusion  and  repudiation  is  by  prudent 
legislation  on  republican  and  democratic  principles — to  confer  "  the  great- 
est good  on  the  greatest  number ; "  but,  of  course,  restricting  the  enact- 
ments within  constitutional  limits.  But  if  the  capitalists  oppress  the 
masses,  they  will  take  the  Government  into  their  own  hands,  and  may  in 
turn  oppress  the  oppressors.  There  is  no  more  efi'ectual  or  cruel  mode  of 
oppression  than  exacting  unnecessary  taxes,  and  there  is  no  scheme  which 
increases  taxation  so  rapidly  and  is  so  unpopular  as  to  pay  excessive  sums 
and  rates  for  the  use  of  money. 

AVhen  w^e  speak  of  capitalists,  we  do  not  include  the  men  who  have 
saved  and  loan  a  few  thousands,  more  or  less,  but  of  the  class  known  as 
"  millionaires,"  who  aspire  to  control  the  Government  and  shape  legisla- 
tion for  their  special  benefit.  They  purchase  presses  and  control  politi- 
cians that  denounce  every  man  that  has  sufiicient  independence  to  assert 
what  he  believes  to  be  right  and  just.  These  men  are  never  so  dangerous 
as  when  tliey  are  able  to  keep  the  financial  question  ''out  of  politics, for 
they  find  it  much  easier  to  control  leading  men  in  both  ^pai^ties  than  to 
manage  it  when  it  becomes  a  party  question.  The  capitalists  have  suc- 
ceeded in  manipulating  the  politicians  in  IN'ew  York  and  in  the  Kew  Eng- 
land States,  and  their  success  affords  a  fine  illustration  of  their  power  and 
finesse  in  political  diplomacy.  It  is  to  be  learned  whether  they  can  con- 
trol the  conventions  of  the  other  States,  and  especially  the  Western  States, 
wdiere  there  is  more  independence  and  intelligence  on  the  financial  ques- 
tions, as  readily  as  they  have  the  Eastern  conventions.  Keep  it  out  of 
politics,"  and  they  expect,  as  heretofore,  to  be  able  to  fix  a  majority  that 
will  vote  as  they  direct.  The  late  three-fourth  vote  in  Congress,  prevent- 
ing further  contraction,  was  a  perfect  stunner  to  these  gentlemen,  and,  to 
recover  the  vantage  ground,  they  are  persistently  urging  the  immediate 
adoption  of  an  enactment  authorizing  the  issue  of  "  long  bonds  "  for  twen- 
ty-five hundred  millions  of  dollars.  We  do  not  wish  to  be  understood  as 
charging  these  men  as  being  either  better  or  w^orse  than  other  men.  Per- 


INTEODUCTION  AND  EXPLAITATION. 


7 


haps,  if  the  reader  or  writer  was  placed  in  the  same  or  similar  circum- 
stances, we  would  employ  tlie  same  means  to  subserve  our  interests.  Hu- 
man nature  is  very  much  the  same,  and  legal  enactments  are  a  convenient 
shelter  for  weak  consciences,  as  well  as  strong  bulwarks  for  oppressors. 

We  are  acquainted  with  honorable  men  who  live  by  loaning  money  at 
high  rates  of  interest,  and  these  accommodations  frequently  save  men  and 
families  from  ruin.  These  are  excaptional  cases,  and  are  no  excuse  why 
the  Government  should  not  supply  the  demand,  either  directly  or  indi- 
rectly, and  protect  its  own  interests  and  the  property  and  labor  of  its  sub- 
jects from  loss  and  oppression.  One  of  the  principal  duties  of  a  good  gov- 
ernment is  to  protect  the  property  and  promote  the  welfare  of  the  people, 
and  the  most  direct  and  effectual  mode  of  accomplisliing  this  desirable 
and  natural  object  is  to  properly  regulate  the  national  finances  ;  and  it  is 
impossible  for  a  government  to  do  this  unless  it  supplies  the  demand  for 
money  at  reasonable  rates.  When  this  is  done,  it  will  receive  the  income, 
benefit  individuals,  and  greatly  reduce,  if  not  entirely  pay,  the  expenses 
of  the  State. 

It  will  be  observed  that  this  pamphlet  is  number  fifteen.  These  little 
works  have  been  published  and  scattered  without  compensation,  at  a  cost 
of  several  thousand  dollars.  They  were  commenced  with  the  commence- 
ment of  the  Eebellion.  Our  principal  object  has  been  to  prove  that  paper 
money  issued  and  guaranteed  by  the  Government  would  immensely  benefit 
the  people  and  country.  In  the  first  number  published  in  1862,  we  said; 
Issuing  the  Treasury  Notes  will  reduce  the  value  of  some  incomes,  and 
ofi*end  those  who  have  money  to  loan  and  live  at  ease  without  labor,  a 
curse  to  themselves  and  to  society.  It  will  bring  happiness  to  millions 
who  are  struggling  with  poverty,  and  allow  them,  to  pay  for  their  farms 
and  homes,  and  relieve  them  from  the  eternal  bondage  of  debt  and  mort- 
gages. Cheap  money  will,  with  its  magic  wancl^  fill  the  land  with  factories, 
whose  fabrics  and  arts  will  compete  with  Europe,  giving  our  people  work, 
and  retaining  our  gold  and  silver  at  home.  Cheap  money  will  cause  the 
wildernsss  to  blossom  like  the  rose,  and  dot  our  ocean-like  prairies  with 
beautiful  villages,  and  cover  them  with  farms  and  happy  homes,  adding 
vastly  to  the  gloey,  power,  and  kiciies  of  the  nation.  -  Is  there  any  valid 
reason  why  the  Government  of  the  United  States  should  not  borrow  money 
on  as  favorable  terms  as  the  Government  of  England  ?  Our  Congress 
should  issue  as  few  honds  as  possible^  and  make  them  payable  at  sliort 
dateSj  bearing  not  over  five  percent,  interest,  issuing  notes  for  all  demands 
and  payments  of  the  Government  up  io  five  or  six  hundred  miWiou^  of  dol- 
lars.   They  can  be  used,  greatly  benefitting  the  people,  and  avoiding  the 


8 


OUE  NATIONAL  FINANCES. 


necessity  of  raising  heavy  taxes  and  paying  large  sums  of  interest  money. 

A  large  amount  of  the  bills  will  be  lost  and  destroyed.  When  the  war 
is  ended,  if  it  is  thought  best  to  fund  them  in  three  or  five  "per  cent,  londs, 
it  can  be  done.  The  better  plan  would  be — and  should  be  adopted  if  tho 
notes  are  returned  faster  than  is  convenient — for  the  Government  to  ap- 
point Commissioners  in  the  new  States  and  Territories,  and  lend  the  notes, 
under  suitable  restrictions,  to  farmers  who  wish  to  settle  on  and  improve 
the  Government  lands.  This  would  immensely  benefit  the  country,  and 
the  Government  would  be  KECEIYING  INSTEAD  OF  PAYING  IN- 
TEEEST. 

The  people  will  gladly  sell  the  Government  all  it  requires  to  feed,  clothe, 
and  arm  the  army  and  navy,  and  take  these  notes.  Our  great  country 
will  absorb  them  by  the  hundreds  of  millions  without  interest.  They  are 
just  the  thing  for  California  and  Oregon,  for  the  people  of  the  Territories, 
for  the  Indians,  for  everybody.  They  are  popular  now  ;  make  them  a  legal 
tender  and  the  people  will  hoard  them.  Then,  Senators  and  Statesmen, 
jput  them  out,  and  people  will  keep  them  out,  and  give  you  all  the  funds 
you  require,  without  begging  of  the  banks,  who  have  comparatively  but 
little  money  and  a  limited  credit. 

We  think  that  these  calculations,  made  six  years  since,  have  been  literally 
fulfilled.  When  we  wrote  the  first  Pamphlet  we  had  no  thought  of  pub- 
lishing a  second,  but  the  attempts  of  the  Bullionists  to  ridicule  and  dis- 
prove our  arguments,  induced  us  to  write  and  publish  upon  the  subject, 
and  especially  as  the  more  we  reflected  and  examined  these  questions  the 
more  we  were  convinced  of  their  great  public  importance.  At  first,  we 
endeavored,  to  the  best  of  our  ability,  to  show  the  inconsistency  of  Mr. 
Chase,  in  his  endeavors  to  deprecate  the  use  of  the  Treasury  Notes,  and 
afterward  to  expose  the  fallacy  and  false  statements  contained  in  the  Re- 
ports of  Mr.  McCulloch.  At  this  time  the  entire  Press,  we  believe 
without  a  single  exception,  endorsed  him  and  his  pernicious  dogmas. 

In  1863  we  published  a  pamphlet,  and  in  order  to  have  it  attract  atten- 
tion and  readers,  we  wrote  it  in  the  form  of  a  dialogue :  and  it  is  probable 
that  from  it  came  the  celebrated  argument  "  that  a  public  debt  was  a  pub- 
lic blessing."  We  strove  in  vain  to  prevent  the  issue  of  Bonds,  the  interest 
of  which  was  payable  in  gold,  and  still  believe  that  it  was  almost  a  fatal 
mistake  and  perfectly  unnecessary. 

We  wrote  as  follows : 

B.  C. — We  must  demonstrate  to  foreign  capitalists  our  ability  and 
willingness  to  pay  our  loans,  and  a  determination  to  immediately  resume 
specie  payments,  or  they  will  not  invest  in  our  bonds. 


IXTEODUCTION  AIS^D  EXPLAis^ATION, 


9 


R. — The  greatest  calamity,  and  the  one  most  probable,  that  can  befall 
the  country,  is  that  foreigners  will  invest — will  take  advantage  of  the  price 
of  excliange,  and  purchase  largely  of  our  securities ;  and  Congress  should 
at  once  pass  a  law,  with  severe  penalties  attached,  prohibiting  and  restrict- 
ing the  sale  of  bonds  to  any  but  American  citizens  residing  in  the  country. 
Fifty  millions  on  every  one  hundred  millions  of  dollars  is  too  great  a  sum 
to  be  thrown  away. 

B.  C. — You  do  not  affirm  that  English,  German,  and  French  capitalists 
should  be  debarred  the  privilege  of  purchasing  our  Government  securi- 
ties? 

H. — Yes,  sir;  I  do,'unles3  they  purchase  directly  from  the  Government, 
and  pay  par  for  them,  and  in  gold. 

B.  C. — That  is  an  original  idea.    It  has  been  supposed  it  would  be  a 
great  advantage  if  we  could  induce  foreign  capitalists  to  purchase  our  ' 
stocks. 

H. — Our  great  I^ational  [Debt  will  prove  a  great  national  blessing,  if 
we  can  retain  it  at  home.  It  is  only  so  much  working  capital  added  to 
the  resources  of  the  country.  The  interest  disbursed  to  our  own  people 
would  very  greatly  benefit  them.  But  suppose,  sir,  one  thousand  millions 
should  be  taken  abroad,  it  would  cost  then  only  about  half  that  sum.  To 
pay  the  interest  on  this  one  thousand  million?,  we  should  be  obliged  to 
ship  then,  annually,  either  in  produce  or  gold,  sixty  millions — sinking,  by 
the  operation,  five  hundred  millions  at  once,  and  still  be  obliged  to  pay 
the  interest  on  the  same.  This,  indeed,  would  be  a  great  national  calamity. 
We  require  neither  their  aid  nor  their  gold.  The  Secretary  of  the  Treas- 
ury should  issue  one  thousand  millions  of  Treasury  iSTotes.  The  wants, 
requirements,  and  the  business  of  the  country  will  absorb,  hold,  and  use 
them.  This  would  save  sixty  millionsannually.  Their  issue  Avould  reduce 
the  rate  of  interest  from  six  to  three  per  cent. ;  and,  as  the  Government  is 
obliged  to  negotiate  fifteen  hundred  millions  of  bonds,  forty  additional 
millions,  at  least,  would  be  saved.  This  sum  saved  would  liquidate  our 
entire  debt  in  less  than  fifteen  years. 

B.  C. — If  this  were  possible,  it  would  reduce  the  incomes  of  capitalists 
one-half ;  and,  sir,  what  would  become  of  the  poor  widows  and  orphans 
who  live  on  their  interest  ? 

B[. — ^There  are  but  very  few  capitalists  or  widows  who  live  on  their  in- 
comes, wdio  have  not  also  large  landed  and  personal  estates,  which  would 
be  correspondingly  increased.  Your  sympathy  seems  to  be  entirely  with 
the  few  thousands  who  live  in  idleness  on  their  incomes  ;  mine  is  with  the 
toiling  millions,  who  have  no  capital,  except  their  hands,  and  in  times  past 


10 


OUR  NATIONAL  FINANCES. 


and,  I  trust,  past  forever),  have  been  frequently  without  work  or  bread. 

If  this  advice  had  been  followed  the  country  would  have  saved  several 
hundred  millions  of  dollars  that  has  been  lost  by  discarding  it. 

In  another  of  our  pamphlets,  we  published  the  following.  It  was  writ- 
ten in  view  of  the  immense  benefits  that  the  Treasury  Notes  had  conferred 
upon  the  Nation.  One  of  the  members  of  Congress  from  Ohio,  in  a  speech 
delivered  in  the  House,  attempted  to  ridicule  the  sentiment ;  but,  after 
three  years  of  consideration,  we  endorse  it  now  as  emphatically  as  we  did 
then,  and  again  place  it  on  record  to  encounter  the  sneers  of  Bullionists. 
We  said : 

And  we  inquire  again,  if  paper  money  is  so  powerful,  fruitful  and  ben- 
eficial in  war,  why  not  use  it  in  time  of  peace,  to  build  up  our  marts  and 
cities,  and  banish  the  thoughts  of  blood  and  carnage.  We  solemnly 
declare  to  the  world  that  the  greatest,  the  cheapest  and  most  beneficent 
power  on  the  earth,  excepting  that  of  God,  is  Paper  Money. 

In  another  of  our  pamphlets,  we  published  the  following,  and  believe  it 
is  applicable  now  as  it  was  then,  and  reproduce  it  for  the  consideration  of 
the  thoughtful : 

Give  the  people  the  use  of  one  thousand  millions  of  Government  money 
and  the  National  Debt  will  prove  to  be  one  of  the  greatest  of  National 
Blessings.  Eefuse  to  do  it  and  it  is  a  tremendous,  grinding,  crushing, 
withering,  blasting  curse,  to  remain  for  generations. 

Issue  one  thousand  millions  of  dollars  in  Treasury  Notes  and  all  talk  and 
thoughts  of  repudiation  will  vanish.  Refuse  to  do  it  and  there  will  be 
continued  excitement  and  a  probability  of  national  disgrace. 

If  it  is  inquired  how  and  when  would  you  have  the  Government  redeem 
this  money,  we  reply.  Its  beauty  and  utility  consist  in  the  proposition  that 
it  does  not  require  to  be  redeemed  any  more  than  gold  or  silver.  And 
the  fact  that,  when  a  bill,  or  roll  of  bills,  is  lost  by  fire  or  otherwise, 
the  debt  of  the  Government  is  reduced,  establishes  its  superiority.  And 
the  saving  of  the  amount  of  the  waste  or  wear  of  the  coins,  is  a  very  large 
item  of  economy.  The  loss  is  so  considerable  that  the  Bank  of  England, 
instead  of  counting  gold,  is  obliged  to  pay  it  out  by  weight. 

We  might  have  added  then,  as  we  did  in  another  of  our  little  works, 
that  the  Government  redeems  more  than  five  hundred  millions  of  the 
Treasury  Notes  annually,  for  taxes,  stamps,  lands,  etc.  We  have  stated 
that  we  published  these  works  to  elicit  discussion  and  call  public  attention. 
How  far  we  have  succeeded,  or  how  much  we  have  helped  to  arouse  atten. 
tion  to  these  important  subjects  is  not  for  us  to  estimate.  Though 
the  cost  has  been  considerable,  we  do  not  regret  that  we  incurred  it,  and 


IKTEODUCTIO^  AKD  EXPLANATIOK. 


11 


are  rejoiced  the  Nation  is  at  last  aroused  to  the  mighty  importance  of  the 
questions  involved  in  our  ^'  National  Finances." 

In  1861,  when  we  attem|)ted  to  convince  the  public  that  it  was  the  doty 
and  privilege  of  the  Government  to  issue  six  hundred  millions  dollars  in 
Legal  Tender  Treasury  Notes,  the  proposition  was  received  with  derision, 
the  Bullionists  declared  the  thing  was  "absurd,"  "preposterous,"  "im- 
possible," etc. 

We  suppose  the  proposition  to  reduce  the  rate  of  interest  to  three  per 
cent,  per  annum  will  be  received  with  as  little  respect.  But  we  are  satis- 
fied, from  a  full  survey  of  the  financial  situation,  the  condition  of  public 
sentiment,  and  the  enormous  amount  of  the  Government  debt,  that  a 
further  large  issue  of  Treasury  Notes  will  be  required  to  satisfy  the  rea- 
sonable demand  for  money ;  that  the  manufacturing  interests,  public  im- 
provements, and  the  welfare  of  the  trading  and  agricultural  classes,  abso- 
lutely require  and  will  receive  encouragement  from  Congress  by  another 
large  issue  of  Government  money. 

Capitalists  will  soon  learn  that  there  are  other  interests  beside  capital 
invested  in  bonds  to  be  respected  in  the  United  States.  And  that  they 
will  be  protected  by  legislation. 

The  following  from  "  the  most  conservative  man  in  the  Senate "  is 
worthy  of  consideration  in  this  connection  : 

The  laws  authorizing  the  issue  of  bonds  bearing  interest  in  coin,  specifi- 
cally pledged  the  revenue  from  customs  to  the  payment  of  that  interest, 
and  provided  for  the  collection  of  those  duties  in  the  same  currency.  In 
the  opinion  of  the  Secretary,  that  pledge  should  not  be  violated  ;  a  de- 
parture from  it  could  only  be  vindicated  by  one  of  those  State  necessities 
which  justify  a  nation  in  temporarily  postponing  its  obligations  in  order  to 
preserve  the  power  to  discharge  them  at  a  future  day.  When  the  pledge 
was  given,  no  one  anticipated  a  possible  continuance  of  the  war  for  such  a 
length  of  time  as  would  involve  the  increase  of  the  public  debt  to  the  point 
it  has  already  attained,  or  the  possible  payment  of  interest  in  coin  to  an 
amount  beyond  the  ability  of  duties  on  imports  to  supply. 

It  was  remarkable  that  very  soon  after  this  was  written  that  the  New 
York  magnates  and  politicians.  Republican  and  Democratic,  who  gen- 
erally rule  the  finances  and  the  Nation,  discovered  "  that  Mr.  Fessenden's 
state  of  health  "  would  not  permit  him  to  remain  in  office,  and  he  was  per- 
mitted to  retire. 

Secretaries  hereafter  who  speak  nothing  but  plain  truth  in  regard  to  the 
National  Finances  will  not  be  forced  to  escape  official  station  from  fear  of 
Capitalists  and  Bullionists. 


OUR  NATIONAL  FINANCES 


THE  DEFEAT  OF  THE  REPUBLICAN 
PARTY  :  THE  CAUSE.  WILL  THEY 
BE  SUCCESSFUL  IN  THE  NEXT 
ELECTION  ?  Etc. 

It  lias  been  very  tersely  stated,  that  tlie 
cause  of  the  defeat  of  the  Republicans  at  the 
recent  elections  was  because  they  remained  at 
home,  but  it  has  not  been  fairly  explained  why 
they  staid  at  home,  instead  of  depositing  their 
votes  at  the  polls  as  usual.  How  it  was  in 
other  States  we  do  not  pretend  to  know,  but 
an  extensive  acquaintance  with  the  Repub- 
licans in  the  States  of  New  York  and  New  Jer- 
sey enables  us  to  form  a  correct  opinion  as  to 
their  sentiments,  and  the  chief  reason  why 
they  did  not  attend  the  elections. 

The  Republican  party  in  those  States  is  com- 
posed of  active  business  men,  merchants,  trad- 
ers, manufacturers,  master  mechanics,  farmers, 
artisans,  etc. ;  are  enterprising  and  intelligent 
men,  being  in  business  that  requires  money 
and  credit  in  which  their  welfare  and  fortunes 
are  involved.  They  were  compelled  from  per- 
sonal considerations  to  ask  to  be  excused  from 
endorsing  the  destructive  policy  of  the  Repub- 
lican managers,  who  invited  the  merchant  to 
vote  that  his  merchandise  should  be  largely 
depreciated ;  they  asked  the  mechanic  to  vote 
that  the  price  of  his  house  and  lot  and  ma- 
chinery be  marked  down  30  or  40  per  cent.; 
they  proclaimed  that  the  farmer  was  receiving 
"  exorbitant "  prices  for  his  labor  and  produce, 
that  the  price  of  his  live  stock  and  farm  was 
"  inflated,"  and  "  must  be  reduced  for  his  own 
benefit,"  as  well  as  for  those  who  live  upon  the 
iacome  or  interest  of  money,  who  were  repre- 
sented as  suffering  intensely. 

To  state  it  more  succinctly,  the  millionaires 
and  magnates  of  the  Republican  party  residing 


in  the  City  of  New  York,  requested  the  business 
and  laboring  men  of  the  party  to  vote  for  the 
destruction  of  their  own  personal  interests — to 
vote  to  bankrupt  and  impoverish  themselves. 
These  men  knew  if  the  States  of  New  York 
and  New  Jersey  should  give  Republican  ma- 
jorities it  would  be  proclaimed  as  a  brilliant 
victory,  and  an  endorsement  of  the  financial 
policy  of  Chase,  Morgan,  McCuUoch  &  Co. 

The  Republicans  who  avoided  the  polls  love 
freedom  as  ardently  as  ever,  but  being  men  of 
intelligence,  they  believed  that  the  question  of 
the  reorganization  of  the  Southern  States  is 
substantially  settled,  and,  even  if  it  was  not, 
they  had  a  higher  and  more  imperative  duty 
which  they  owed  themselves  and  families,  self- 
preservation,  which  is  the  first  duty  of  man 
and  communities. 

SENATOR  MORGAN. 

The  Republicans  opened  the  late  political 
campaign  at  the  Cooper  Institute.  At  that 
great  ratification  meeting  Senator  Morgan  pre- 
sided, and  made  the  opening  speech,  in  which 
he  said  :  "  Next  in  importance  as  a  political 
question  is  that  of  the  public  debt  and  our  na- 
tional finances.  The  business  of  the  country 
has  so  long  been  conducted  upon  a  largely 
depreciated  paper  currency,  to  which  the  peo- 
ple have  become  accustomed,  and,  to  some  ex- 
tent, satisfied,  that  adequate  efforts  are  not 
being  made  for  an  early  return  to  specie  pay- 
ments. [Cheers.]  This  is  our  great  error; 
and  from  it  comes  a  brood  of  others,  among 
which  is  a  proposition,  put  forth  by  a  few  pub- 
lic men,  to  pay  one  of  the  great  popular  classes 
of  United  States  bonds  in  greenbacks  instead 
of  coin." 

We  shall  not  discuss  the  question,  at  least  at 
present,  of  the  propriety  of  paying  the  5-20 


14 


OUR  NATIONAL  FINANCES. 


bonds  in  the  same  description  of  money  that 
was  received  for  them.  It  was  but  natural 
that  Senator  Morgan,  living  as  he  does  on 
Murray  Hill,  and  surrounded  with  million- 
aires who  own  hundreds  of  millions  of  Gov- 
ernment securities,  should  condemn  the  propo- 
sition to  pay  these  bonds  in  the  currency  that 
was  given  for  them. 

Men  who  live  in  splendor  upon  the  interest 
of  money,  high  above  the  common  people,  im- 
agine themselves  superior  beings,  and  that 
the  possession  of  very  great  wealth  gives  them 
the  right  to  exact  any  usury  or  terms  they 
choose,  and  any  man  that  questions  their  mo- 
tives or  authority  is  branded  a  "  knave "  or 
"scoundrel." 

If  Senator  Morgan  had  not  been  as  frank  as 
he  was,  and  acknowledged  as  he  did,  in  the 
following  words :  "  Industry  languishes  under 
excessive  taxation,  and  must  be  disenthralled. 
Commercial,  agricultural  and  mechanical  in 
terests  all  feel  the  present  burdens  which  grow 
more  and  more  onerous,  and  will  continue  to 
do  so  as  currency  gravitates  toward  a  gold 
value,"  The  Republicans,  who  are  men  that 
read  and  reflect,  were  aware,  before  the  Senator 
informed  them,  that  "  their  burdens  would 
grow  more  and  more  onerous,"  as  the  destruc- 
tionists  forced  specie  payments.  It  required 
no  statement  to  convince  them  "  that  industry 
languishes  under  excessive  taxation,"  and  they 
were  and  are  perfectly  convinced  that  this  ex- 
cessive taxation  is  caused  by  the  excessive 
rates  of  usury  the  Government  unnecessarily 
pays  for  the  use  of  money.  And  that  the  Sen- 
ator is  one  of  the  most  powerful,  from  wealth 
and  influence,  of  any  man  in  the  country,  to 
promote,  and  is  promoting,  the  increase  of  tax- 
ation. They  understand  the  whole  subject. 
They  see,  if  others  do  not,  that  the  great 
capitalists,  acting  in  concert  with  Johnson,  Mc- 
Culloch  &  Co.,  are  determined  to  get  the  Gov- 
ernment committed  for  the  entire  public  debt, 
in  gold-bearing  bonds.  They  are  familiar  with 
the  tactics  of  the  Bullioni&ts,  who  are  working 
an  extra  number  of  clerks  in  the  Treasury 
office,  working  extra  hours,  in  manufacturing 
gold-bearing  bonds,  to  be  given  in  exchange 
for  those  bearing  interest  in  currency.  And  as 
soon  as  this  vantage  ground  is  gained,  the 


ravens  that  follow  the  carcass,  will  cry  Long 
Bonds  I  Long  Bonds ! 

Senator  Morgan  garnished  his  speech  with 
some  pathetic  and  eloquent  sentences,  to  make 
it  palatable  to  the  one  million  of  people  who 
reside  in  and  near  the  city,  and  who  in  reality 
are  only  the  servants  of  the  few  hundred  capi- 
talists that  own,  or  at  least  control  and  use 
them,  and  the  avails  of  their  genius,  skill,  and 
labor— he  repeated  the  stale  trash,  that  "in- 
creased circulation  greatly  enhances  the  cost 
of  all  commodities  of  daily  life." 

The  price  current  has  constantly  exjjloded 
this  popular  nonsense.  Sheep  and  wool  are 
both  commodities  of  daily  life,  and  both  are 
so  depressed  in  value  as  to  make  it  a  ruinous 
business  to  raise  or  keep  them.  If  there  was 
no  greater  foreign  demand  for  grain,  flour, 
provisions,  etc.,  than  there  is  for  sheep  and 
wool,  our  farmers  would  be  unable  to  pay  their 
family  expenses  and  their  taxes  ;  and  every 
sensible  and  intelligent  person  will  acknowl- 
edge that  short  crops  and  high  prices  in  Europe, 
and  not  "an  inflated  currency,"  is  the  only 
reason  why  the  commodities  of  daily  life  are 
enhanced.  In  another  chapter  we  shall  exam- 
ine this  subject  more  at  length. 

The  intelligent  Republicans  realize  the  im- 
portance of  the  approaching  Presidential  elec- 
tion, and  know  if  they  indorsed  the  policy  of 
the  contractionists,  their  votes  would  be  claimed 
in  the  next  canvass  to  support  the  oligarchs, 
and  that  they  would  be  forced  either  to  aban- 
don the  Republican  party,  or  vote  for  their 
own  abasement,  and  are  watching  the  drift  of 
their  party  with  the  deepest  anxiety,  believing 
that  freedom  in  the  Southern  States  depends 
upon  the  course  that  is  adopted  upon  this,  the 
most  important  of  all  political  questions—that 
of  our  National  Finances. 

In  order  to  establish  the  truth  of  the  asser- 
tions that  the  Republicans  were  invited  to  ruin 
themselves  and  bankrupt  the  country,  we  copy 
the  following  editorial  from  the  most  respecta- 
ble and  influential  Republican  paper  in  the 
country.  It  appeared  a  few  days  previous  to 
the  election.  We  give  it  entire.  This  is  only 
a  fair  sample  of  those  that  were  constantly 
published  in  the  majority  of  the  Republican 
papers  : 


THE  DEFEAT  OF  THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY,  Etc. 


15 


MOVING  TOWARD  SPECIE  PAYMENTS. 

The  Bank  statement,  sliowinp^  a  decrease  of 
over  tliree  millions  in  the  surplus  of  reserve, 
the  continued  activity  on  call  loans  to  specu- 
lators, the  increased  difficulty  in  negotiating 
commercial  bills,  together  with  the  unsatis- 
factory condition  of  trade  and  manufactures 
generally,  give  new  interest  to  the  financial 
action  of  Congress  at  its  approaching  meeting. 
As  usual,  speculators  and  traders  upon  bor- 
rowed money  declare  that  the  salvation  of  the 
country  depends  upon  a  further  increase  of 
legal-tender  money,  and  that  Congress  should 
without  delay  take  from  Mr.  McCulloch  the 
power  of  destroying  the  paltry  sum  of  four 
millions  per  month.  As  the  currency  can 
never  be  brought  to  specie  by  increasing  the 
volume  of  paper,  which  causes  gold  dollars  to 
sell  at  a  premium,  and  as  this  fact  is  now  plain 
to  every  member  of  Congress,  speculators  and 
over-traders  on  borrowed  capital  must  prepare 
themselves  to  see  a  little  delay  by  Congress, 
before  it  commits  the  f?tal  and  stupid  blunder 
of  stopping  the  moderate  contraction  of  the 
currency  allowed  to  the  Treasury.  Contrac- 
tion is  now  plainly  seen  to  be  not  only  the  first 
duty  ot  Congress  to  the  national  creditors,  and 
to  the  permanent  interests  of  the  country,  but 
the  popular  policy  as  well.  The  people  only 
tolerated  irredeemable  paper  money  as  a  des- 
perate mode  of  meeting  the  expenses  of  the 
Rebellion,  and  will  not  long  suffer  its  use, 
when  the  credit  of  the  nation  is  where  long 
five  per  cent,  bonds  can  be  sold  at  par.  The 
old  plan  of  paper  dollars  redeemable  in  gold 
at  their  place  of  issue,  and  the  democratic  idea 
of  hard  money  for  all  purposes,  are  again  put- 
ting in  their  claims,  and  daily  find  new  advo- 
cates. All  the  signs  of  the  times  are  favorable 
to  a  steady  return  to  specie  payments,  and  the 
solvent  part  of  the  country  does  not  expect 
Congress  to  put  any  restriction  upon  the  Sec- 
retary's present  power  to  retire  the  legal  ten- 
ders, but  at  a  proper  time  does  expect  to  see 
Congress  enlarge  it,  and  direct  him  to  pay  in 
gold  every  dollar.  Upon  the  question  of  cur- 
rency tho  annual  message  of  the  President 
and  the  report  of  Secretary  McCulloch  will  be 
in  harmony,  and  specie  payment  be  declared 
the  settled  policy.  These  officials  will  proba- 
bly re-state  their  opinions  so  forcibly  that,  if 
Congress  should  indiscreetly  attempt  "  finan- 
cial reconstruction  "  in  the  direction  of  more 
irredeemable  paper,  the  movement  will  be  de- 
layed at  least  by  Executive  interposition.  All 
business  which  will  be  harmed  by  retiring  four 
millions  of  legal  tender  per  month  out  of  the 
present  mass  of  $301,000,000,  cannot  be  closed 
up  too  soon,  and  all  banks  having  more  circu- 
lation than  they  can  manage  with  gold  at  par 
should  lose  no  lime  in  getting  it  home. 

This  revealed  what  the  capitalists  were  pro. 

viding  for  the  masses.  It  tells  the  whole  story, 

and  therefore  requires  no  explanation.    It  ap- 


pears that  even  a  veto  was  promised  to  curb  the 
refractory  members  of  Congress.  "  The  solvent 
men  "  had  the  whole  matter  arranged — but  the 
game  was  blocked,  or  failed  of  indorsement, 
as  every  other  scheme  should  be  that  aims  to 
benefit  the  few  at  the  expense  of  the  many. 

There  are  tens  of  thousands  of  staunch  Re- 
publicans, merchants,  traders,  mechanics,  farm- 
ers, etc.,  who  are  honest  men.  Circumstances, 
unfortunately,  compel  them  to  use  borrowed 
money.  All  are  striving  to  become  independ- 
ent and  free  from  obligations.  They  were  in- 
sultingly informed  that  Congress  should  legis- 
late for  the  benefit  of  the  Bond  holders,  and 
break  "  the  speculators,"  as  all  business  men 
are  called  who  are  not  independently  rich. 

We  copy  another  editorial  from  the  same 
paper.  It  makes  the  following  important  ad- 
missions.   It  reads  thus : 

WORTH  THINKING  OF. 

This  country  is  staggering  under  an  enor- 
mous load  of  Public  Debt.  The  Federal  Gov- 
ernment owes  Two  Billions  and  a  Half  ;  the 
States  owe  large  amounts ;  while  Counties, 
Cities  and  Townships,  have  each  their  several 
burdens.  We  are  paying,  in  the  aggregate, 
not  less  than  Th  ree  Hundred  Millions  per 
annum  as  interest  on  these  various  debts, 
while  we  are  considerably  reducing  the  princi- 
pal, especially  of  the  local  obligations  in- 
curred in  providing  bounties  for  the  volunteers 
in  our  late  struggle.  Altogether,  the  taxes 
paid  by  the  people  of  the  United  States, 
though  considerably  reduced  from  the  maxi- 
mum they  attained  in  1865-6,  must  probably 
exceed  Five  Hundred  Millions  per  annum. 
Almost  everything  is  taxed,  from  the  baby's 
posset  to  the  old  man's  coffin — many  things 
twice  and  thrice  over.  It  is  generally  agreed 
that  our  taxation  may  be  readjusted  and  sim- 
plified, so  as  to  render  it  considerably  less  irk- 
some. 

Will  some  one  attempt  to  explain  the  seem- 
ing paradox  of  an  immense  and  steadily  in- 
creasing migration,  from  countries  that  owe 
little  nnd  tax  lightly  in  comparison,  to  this 
overburdened  republic  ?  That  some  should 
fiock  hither  at  all  events,  is  natural  ;  but  that 
the  volume  of  immigration  should  be  not 
merely  maintained  but  largely  augmented, 
under  the  pressure  of  gigantic  debt,  a  high 
tariff",  heavy  internal  taxes,  and  an  inflated, 
irredeemable  currency,  is  a  puzzle  to  political 
economists.  Immigrants  are  still  pouring  in, 
at  the  rate  of  a  thousand  per  day  ;  and  all  of 
them  who  know  how  to  do  anything,  and  will 
do  it,  find  employment  and  remuneration. 
Labor  is  as  well  paid  in  the  average,  and  as 
comfortably  subsisted,  as  it  was  when  we  had 


IC 


OUR  NATIONAL  FINANCES. 


next  to  no  debt,  lifjlit  taxes,  and  a  currency 
convertible  into  specie  at  par.  The  real  estate 
of  the  country  could  be  sold  to  day  for  more 
money  (reduced  to  specie)  than  it  was  worth 
ten  years  ac^o.  Most  of  our  people  are  pros- 
perinor ;  many  are  amassing  wealth.  ILmses 
are  being  built  on  every  hand  ;  lands  are  being 
improved  ;  new  farms  are  being  hev/n  out  of 
the  forest  and  carved  from  the  wild  prairie ; 
our  railroads  are  being  extended  at  the  rate  of 
a  thousand  miles  per  annum  ;  and  the  product 
of  our  National  Industry  in  18G7  will  be  larger 
than  that  of  any  former  year. 

Do  we  not  need  a  new  political  economy 
recognizing  and  adapted  to  this  state  of  facts  ? 

This  is  a  candid,  but  mild  description,  of 
some  of  the  benefits  that  the  use  of  the  Treas- 
ury money  Las  conferred  upon  the  public.  It 
is  a  paradox  that  confounds  the  ethics  of  the 
Bullionists,  who  believe  that  it  requires  a  cur- 
rency at  par  with  gold  to  make  a  nation  pros- 
perous, which  is  a  mistake,  as  this  editorial 
abundantly  demonstrates. 

The  cause  of  this  prosperity  and  emigration 
is  no  mystery.  It  is  simple  cause  and  effect — 
human  nature  exemplified.  "  Where  the  car- 
cass is,  there  will  the  eagles  be  gathered." 
Men  will  flock  to  those  places  and  countries 
where  money  is  abundant.  If  money  is  plenty, 
business  is  brisk,  and  labor  is  well  rewarded, 
and  attracts  emigrants. 

Under  the  democratic  rule  of  Buchnnan  and 
Bullion,  tens  of  thousands  of  emigrants  re- 
turned to  Europe,  and  other  tens  of  thousands 
were  fed  at  public  soup  houses,  because  trade 
and  improvements  were  dwarfed  by  the  inade- 
quate amount  of  circulating  medium  in  the 
country ;  because  the  Government  had  neglect- 
ed its  first  and  most  important  duty — that  of 
furnishing  a  representative  of  capital  to  pro- 
pel the  trade  and  industry  of  the  nation. 

The  people  were  informed  "  as  soon  as  bot- 
tom was  touched,"  specie  payments  resumed, 
there  will  be  an  increase  of  business,  prosper- 
ity, etc.  The  people  of  this  country  have 
''touched  bottom"  several  times,  and  do  not 
admire  the  process. 

The  great  capitalists  are,  from  interest, 
"  Bears,"  and  are  constantly  endeavoring  to 
reduce  prices  of  all  property,  excepting  money, 
and  the  rents  of  houses,  stores,  etc.  They  are 
continually  predicting  calamities,  and  endeav- 
oring to  create  panics  in  the  money  market, 


which  is  their  harvest  time,  and  allows  them 
to  plunder  the  community  with  impunity. 

Since  the  issue  of  Government  paper  money 
they  have  been  unable  to  control  the  markets 
as  formerly,  and  this  enrages  them. 

They  protested,  with  all  of  their  energies, 
against  the  issue  of  the  Treasury  notes,  and 
Mr.  Chase  assured  them  the  exigencies  of  the 
situation  compelled  him,  against  his  better 
judgment,  to  use  them  (they  were,  in  fact,  the 
salvation  of  the  country),  and  would  be  de- 
stroyed as  soon  as  possible.  To  appease  the 
wrath  of  the  capitalists  he  issued  bonds  hav- 
ing interest  payable  in  gold,  for  he  could  not 
induce  Congress,  with  all  of  his  power  and 
popularity,  to  consent  to  make  them  gold 
bonds,  payable  in  specie.  Intelligent  Repub- 
licans, as  we  have  stated,  had  been  Qbservant 
spectators,  and  witnessed,  with  admiration,  the 
vast  benefits  that  this  money  conferred  upon 
the  Government  and  community,  and  were  un- 
willing to  cast  their  votes,  when  they  knew,  if 
their  party  triumphed,  it  would  be  claimed  as 
an  indorsement  of  the  destructive  policy  of 
Johnson,  McCulloch,  Morgan  &  Co.,  in  regard 
to  the  Treasury  notes,  and  the  fundirg  and 
payment  of  the  National  securities. 

They  were  astonished  to  see  eminent  Repub- 
licans sustaining  the  measures  and  recommend- 
ations of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  in  his 
schemes  for  the  annihilation  of  the  Union 
party,  for  they  knew  that  he  had  done  more  to 
distract  and  demoralize  their  party  than  the 
President  a  hundredfold.  But  it  is  more  than 
probable  the  two  were,  and  are,  working  in 
concert  for  the  same  object. 

Mr.  McCulloch  was  the  first  officer  of  the 
Government,  after  the  death  of  Mr.  Lincoln, 
who  openly  defied  and  trampled  upon  the  in- 
structions and  laws  of  Cengress.  He  was  the 
first  to  appoint  notorious  Rebels  to  places  of 
trust  and  honor.  And  so  busy  has  he  been 
engaged  with  politics  that  he  abandoned  the 
interests  of  the  Treasury.  While  he  was  talk- 
ing about  and  recommending  the  "  strictest 
economy,''  he  allowed  hundreds  of  millions  of 
dollars  of  revenue  to  remain  uncollected.  His 
constant  aim  seems  to  have  been,  to  destroy 
the  property  of  the  people,  knowing  this  was 
the  only  way  to  defeat  the  Union  Party,  who, 


PRESIDEXT  JOHNSON  ON  THE  FINANCES. 


17 


by  glorious  statesmansliip  for  tlie  Union  and 
Freedom,  have  won  tlie  gratitude  of  a  large 
majority  of  a  grateful  people. 

The  statesman  or  party  who  expects  to  be 
retained  in  power  and  legislate  for  the  ben- 
efit of  capitalists,  and  ignore  the  interests  of 
the  people  who  labor  and  create  the  wealth 
of  the  nation,  will,  if  they  are  so  blind  or 
demented  as  to  be  influenced  by  two  mil- 
lions of  persons  that  subsist  in  idleness, 
in  elegant  ease  and  luxurious  pleasures, 
will  be  grossly  mistaken.  Politicians  or  states- 
men who  believe  that  money  at  interest  should 
receive  the  first  and  best  i'ruits  of  the  land, 
to  the  exclusion  of  the  industrious,  will 
soon  understand  that  the  thirty  odd  mil- 
lions of  educated  and  intelligent  freemen 
who  inhabit  this  new  and  glorious  hem- 
isphere will  not  submit  to  such  flagrant  wrong 
and  gross  injustice. 

PRESIDENT  JOHNSON  ON  THE 
FINANCES. 
The  President  in  his  late  Message  speaks  in 
regard  to  the  circulation  of  money  as  follows  : 

Nor  can  it  be  controlled  by  legislation,  but 
must  be  left  to  the  irrevocable  laws  which 
everywhere  regulate  commerce  and  trade.  The  , 
circulating  medium  will  ever  irresistibly  flow  , 
to  those  points  where  it  is  in  greatest  demand.  ' 
The  law  of  demand  and  supply  is  as  unerring 
as  that  which  regulates  the  tides  of  the  ocean,  ; 
and,  indeed,  currency,  like  the  tides,  has  its  ! 
ebbs  and  flows  throughout  the  commercial 
world.  I 

! 

This  is  one  of  the  many  hackneyed  sentences 
that  is  repeated  with  but  little  variation  of 
words  by  every  person  that  writes  on  finance  ! 
or  political  economy,  who  attempts  to  de-  ; 
fend  the  theory  that  gold  is  the  only  proper  ' 
basis  for  a  circulating  medium,  and  that  real  ; 
money  can  only  be  produced  from  gold  and  ' 
silver.  1 

And  the  statement  that  "  The  circulating 
medium  will  ever  irresistibly  flow  to  those  j 
points  where  it  is  in  greatest  demand,"  is  an-  j 
other  of  those  popular  errors  that  is  contra-  j 
dieted  by  incontrovertible  facts,  and  the  opera-  ; 
tion  of  the  money  markets  of  Christendom.  | 
Money  flows  in  a  continual  stream  from  Cali-  ; 
fornia,  where  it  is  worth  from  10  to  20  per  I 
3 


cent.,  to  London  and  Paris  where  it  is  loaned 
at  2  and  3  per  cent,  per  annum. 

The  supposition  that  supply  and  demand 
applies  to  any  system  of  finance  that  has  ever 
been  adopted  in  this  country  ^  ^oreposterous. 
Here  there  has  invariably  bj^  great  de- 
mand, but  no  adequate  suppl^^.^ 

■  In  order  to  have  the  rules  of  supply  and  de- 
mand apply,  it  would  first  bt?  necessary  to 
permanently  j?.c  the  price  by  which  the  demand 
could  be  supplied.  For  instant^-,  the  demand 
for  money,  discounts  and  loans,  would  be  much 
heavier  at  3  per  cent,  than  it  would  be  at  6 
per  cent,  and  much  larger  at  6  per  cent,  than 
at  12  or  24  per  cent. 

The  perfection  of  statesmanship,  if  it  is  ever 
attained,  will  be  to  devise  a  system  that  will 
regulate  the  issue  of  currency  at  reasonable 
j  rates,  say  from  1  to  3  per  cent.,  and  fully  sup- 
ply the  demand. 

If  a  person  wishes  to  borrow  money,  and 
can  give  good  security,  he  should  have  the 
privilege,  as  much  as  he  sh  raid  to  purchase 
a  barrel  of  flour  after  he      s  obtained  the 

loan.  .ced  w 

The  Bank  of  Engljuid  g^.^rns  the  supply 
and  demand  for  money  in  Great  Britain,  and 
not  only  regulates  the  supply,  but  the  directors 
at  their  pleasure  bankrupt  one-half  the  busi- 
ness firms  in  the  kingdom,  and  exert  a  bane- 
ful influence  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  The 
president  and  directors  of  this  giant  monopoly 
in  1863  supposed  "  that  the  speculators  were 
going  too  fast,"  suddenly  refused  to  supply  the 
demand  for  money  and  put-up  the  rate  of  in- 
terest from  3  to  4,  5,  6,,-th^.  9,  10,  11  and  12 
per  cent,  and  then  "  shut^  ^Q.n  the  gates."  A 
terrible  panic  ensued,  aqQggg(3  usands  and  tens 
of  thousands  of  merchaij-efp-^nd  manufacturers, 
men  who  had  abundant  property,  were  ruined 
and  forced  into  bankruptcy,  and  their  property 
sacrificed  by  their  odious  bankrupt  law  which 
forced  it  to  a  sale  when  money  was  in  demand 
at  the  Bank  at  12  per  cent.,  and  24  per  cent,  on 
the  street. 

The  circulating  value  of  gold,  which  is  said 
never  varies,  was  so  dwarfed  that  every  de- 
scription of  securities,  including  Consols,  was 
so  much  depreciated,  that  the  Government 
became  alarmed,  and  ordered  the  Bank  to 


18 


OUR  NATIONAL  FINANCES. 


loose  its  grasp.  An  edict  was  promulgated 
that  five  millions  of  pounds  sterling,  in  Bank 
of  England  notes,  should  be  issued,  and  the 
panic  immediately  subsided.  But  an  irrepar- 
able injury  h!)uiibeen  perpetrated,  and  tens  of 
thousands  m  ^^"^^norable  men,  living  in  afflu- 
ence, was  de^„,fj\'3d,  business  suspended,  wages 
reduced,  and  the  Bank  that  confiscated  and 
hoarded  illetfiiimate  millions  has  a  surplus  of 
money  to  lo!>'^  at  very  low  rates — or,  in  other 
words,  has  l>8ii'<^d  the  huge  man-trap  with  very 
cheap  moiiey,  and,  at  the  proper  time,  will 
spring  it  again,  and  catch  the  property  and 
earnings  of  the  people  and  devour  them,  as  in 
the  memorable  year  1866.  It  should  not  be 
forgotten  that  this  panic  run  its  course  with- 
out breaking  the  Banks,  and  their  hills  were  par 
with  gold.  There  was  no  "  degraded  currency  " 
to  be  made  the  convenient  scapegoat  of  incom- 
petent men,  as  is  the  case  in  this  country. 

It  is  a  gross  perversion  of  truth  and  common 
sense  to  assert  that  there  is  a  supply  of  money 
when  merchant    traders,  farmers,  etc.,  in  good 

standing,  and       ^  offer  good  securities,  are 

yS.  tc- 

refused  discoui  ,  '''^gal  rates.  In  the  great 
provision  marts  West,  perfectly  solvent 

firms  are  oblige*  pay  froin  10  to  30  per  cent, 
per  annum  for  use  of  money.  This  is  a 
disgrace  to  the  nation,  especially  as  this  heavy 
usury  is  deducted  from  the  labor  of  the  agricul- 
turists, who  produce  the  wealth  which  sus- 
tains the  Government  and  the  whole  fabric  of 
society. 

The  President  advocates  resumption,  and 
Bays  :  "  This  can  o  -""y  be  accomplished  by  the 
restoration  of  the  Tency  to  the  standard  es- 
tablished by  the^      istitution,  and  by  this 

.id  iiK  .    .  ^. 

means  we  woux       /nove  a  discnmmation 

which  THy^  if  ii^^^  not  already  done  so, 
create  a  prejudice  that  may  become  deep-rooted 
and  widespread,  and  imperil  the  national  cred- 
it. The  feasibility  of  making  our  currency 
correspond  with  the  Constitutional  standard 
may  be  seen  by  reference  to  a  few  facts  derived 
from  our  commercial  statistics." 

Mr.  Johnson  has  "  Constitution  on  the  brain," 
which  accounts  for  the  language  quoted  above. 

If  there  is  any  one  thing  taught  in  the  Con- 
stitution— in  plain  terms,  in  which  there  is  no 
double  meaning — it  is,  that  Congress  has  the 


power  "  to  issue  bills  of  credit — to  coin  money, 
and  fix  the  value  thereof.'* 

If  the  argument  is  sound  that  the  value  of 
money  cannot  be  fixed,  then  Congress  is  em- 
powered to  do  an  impossible  thing.  But  Con- 
gress is  authorized,  in  the  plain,  expressed 
language  of  the  Constitution,  to  coin  and  stamp 
gold  or  paper,  or,  if  the  reader  prefers,  to  issue 
bills  of  credit — Treasury  notes.  And  these 
bills  of  credit,  stamped  with  the  seal  of  the 
Government,  which  fixes  their  value,  and  are 
by  law  received  for  revenue,  land,  etc. — hun- 
dreds of  millions  of  this  money  has  been  paid 
out  and  received  for  taxes,  and  the  Supreme 
Court  has  decided  again  and  again  that  they 
are  valid — and  it  is  futile  for  any  one  to  say 
that  they  are  only  "  a  degraded  "  currency — 
and  when  the  President  declares  they  are,  he 
degrades  himself  and  the  high  office  he  occu- 
pies. 

They  are  the  legal  currency  of  the  country, 
and  if  the  citizens  of  other  nations  do  not  ap- 
preciate them,  it  is  because  they  have  no  just 
conception  of  the  vast  amount  of  wealth  by 
which  they  are  secured  ;  and  the  citizen  of  the 
United  States  that  objects  to  this  money  has 
not  reflected  on  the  vast  benefits  it  has 
conferred,  and  is  still  producing,  upon  this 
great  and  mighty  nation,  whose  organic  law  is 
the  result  of  the  highest  order  of  intelligence, 
which  imparted  to  Congress  this  tremendous 
beneficent,  conservative  power,  of  creating  a 
medium  of  exchange,  commensurate  to  the 
requirements  of  thirty -five  millions  of  people, 
who  inhabit  the  grandest  and  the  richest  em 
pire  that  has  ever  existed  upon  the  earth. 

The  President  and  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
deserve  impeachment  for  slandering  the  Gov- 
ernment money. 

We  make  another  extract  from  the  Message, 
which  exhibits  the  unfairness  and  the  unfit- 
ness of  the  President  to  advise  Congress  or 
the  people  : 

It  has  been  asserted  by  one  of  our  profound 
and  most  gifted  statesmen  that  "  of  all  the 
contrivances  for  cheating  the  laboring  classes 
of  mankind  none  has  been  more  effectual  than 
that  which  deludes  them  with  paper  money." 
This  is  the  most  effectual  of  inventions  to  fer- 
tilize the  rich  man's  fields  by  the  sweat  of  the 
poor  man's  brow.  Ordinary  tyranny,  oppres- 
sion, excessive  taxation,  these  bear  lightly  on 


THE  REPORT  OF  THE  SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY. 


19 


the  happiness  of  the  mass  of  the  community, 
compared  with  a  fraudulent  currency  and  the 
robberies  committed  by  depreciated  paper. 
Our  own  history  has  recorded  for  our  instruc- 
tion enough,  and  more  than  enough,  of  the 
demoralizing  tendency,  the  injustice,  and  the 
intolerable  oppression  on  the  well-disposed 
of  a  degraded  paper  currency,  authorized 
by  law  or  in  any  way  countenanced  by 
Government,  It  is  one  of  the  most  success- 
ful devices  in  times  of  peace  or  war,  expan- 
sions or  revulsions,  to  accomplish  transfer  of 
the  precious  metals  from  the  great  mass  of  the 
people  into  the  hands  of  the  few,  where  they 
are  hoarded  in  secret  places,  or  deposited  in 
strong  boxes  under  bolts  and  bars,  while  the 
people  are  left  to  endure  all  the  inconven- 
iences, sacrifice  and  demoralization  resulting 
from  the  use  of  a  depreciated  and  worthless 
paper  money. 

It  is  perfectly  astonishing  that  this  portion 
of  the  President's  stump  speech  is  indorsed  by 
eminent  Republicans.  His  language  correctly 
describes  the  worthless  stuff  and  system  of 
State  Bank  and  wild-cat  currency  fostered  by 
the  old  Democratic  party,  which  professed  to 
pay  specie,  and  issued  "  convertible  dollars." 
Hundreds  of  these  institutions  failed,  and 
swindled  the  people  out  of  hundreds  of  mil- 
lions of  dollars,  inspiring  confidence  because 
they  professed  to  redeem  with  specie. 

The  "eminent  statesman"  referred  to  de- 
scribed this  rotten  system  of  banking,  which 
McCuUoch  regrets  was  not  retained,  and  the 
attempt  of  the  President  to  compare  that 
system  of  illegal  shinplaster  banking  with 
the  Treasury  notes  issued  by  the  United 
States  Government  and  secured  by  the  entire 
property  of  the  country,  is  a  base  attempt  to 
deceive  the  people  and  increase  the  financial 
troubles  which  were  culminating  by  the  double 
curse  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  destroy- 
ing and  slandering  the  Government  money. 

The  object  of  these  efforts  is  as  wicked  and 
contemptible  as  their  motives  are  apparent. 
They  wish  to  destroy  the  prosperity  of  the 
country,  to  demonstrate  that  the  Republican 
party  is  not  competent  to  govern  the  nation. 

Mr.  Johnson,  though  professing  to  be  indif- 
ferent, is  evidently  endeavoring  to  do  a  suffi- 
cient amount  of  dirty  work  to  make  him  an 
eligible  candidate  for  reelection.  His  brain  is 
so  full  of  Reconstruction,  or  struggling  to  pre- 
vent it,  that  he  is  oblivious  to  the  great  change 


that  has  taken  place  in  the  minds  of  the  mass- 
es, who  have  discovered,  after  it  has  been  ex- 
emplified by  actual  experience,  that  paper 
money  is  their  best  friend,  and  appreciate  the 
vast  difference  there  is  between  the  Treasury 
notes  and  the  worthless  rags  that  were  formerly 
forced  upon  them.  If  he  had  been  well  in- 
formed as  to  the  drift  of  public  opinion,  he 
would  not  have  attacked  the  people's  money. 
His  attempt  to  "  degrade  "  it  will  prevent  him 
from  becoming  the  candidate  of  the  Democratic 
party  for  the  Presidency. 

THE  REPORT  OF  THE  SECRETARY  OF 
THE  TREASURY. 

It  is  perfectly  evident,  from  reading  the  pres- 
ent report  of  Mr.  McCulloch,  as  it  was  of  his 
previous  messages,  that  his  great  object  has 
been  to  prove  to  the  world  and  the  country 
that  the  Republican  statesmen  are  incompetent 
to  administer  the  Government ;  that  they  are 
perfectly  ignorant  on  the  subject  of  finance 
and  political  economy,  as  well  as  upon  the  sub- 
ject  of  "rehabilitation"  and  reconstruction  of 
the  Southern  States. 

Any  person  unacquainted  with  the  charac- 
ter and  abilities  of  the  last  and  those  of  the 
present  members  of  Congress,  after  reading 
the  Secretary's  report,  would  be  forced  to  ac- 
knowledge, judging  from  the  report,  that  our 
statesmen  were  and  are  entirely  unfit  to  legis- 
late for  the  nation.  And  if  they  put  confidence 
in  the  Secretary,  they  would  be  obliged  to  ad- 
mit that  he,  himself,  has,  with  herculean  labor 
and  consummate  skill  and  wisdom,  been  the 
salvation  of  the  country.  His  constant  effort 
has  been  to  demonstrate  that  the  Democratic 
administrations  previous  to  Republican  rule, 
under  Lincoln,  were  blessed,  prosperous  and 
happy  ;  he  constantly  refers  to  "  our  previous 
prosperity,"  to  "  the  healthy  state  "  of  the  na- 
tion, etc.,  etc. 

Mr.  McCulloch  formerly  occupied  a  comfort- 
able easy  chair  as  the  President  of  a  State 
Bank  in  Indiana,  and  may  have  been  oblivious 
to  the  miserable  condition  of  the  nation  and 
the  people,  who  were  floundering  in  poverty 
and  bankruptcy  ;  when  our  public  improve- 
ments were  languishing;  when  the  stock  of 
I  the  Erie  Railroad  was  selling  for  14  cents  on 


20 


OUR  NATIONAL  FINANCES. 


the  dollar,  Harlem  at  6  cents,  and  almost  every 
railroad  in  the  United  States  was  crippled  and 
endeavoring  to  negotiate  second,  third,  and 
even  fourth,  mortgage  bonds  to  keep  their  cars 
in  motion  and  roads  in  repair.  In  those  days 
the  people  were  so  poverty-stricken  as  to  be 
unable  to  enjoy  the  luxury  of  travel  for  plea- 
sure, and  trade  was  so  dwarfed  that  there  was, 
comparatively,  but  a  small  amount  of  freight, 
and  passengers  travelling  on  business. 

We  propose  to  exhibit  some  of  the  Secretary's 
gross  errors  and  false  aspersions  and  repre- 
sentations. In  the  beginning  of  his  report  he 
says:  " 

The  policy  of  contracting  the  currency,  al- 
though not  enforced  to  the  extent  authorized 
by  Jaw,  has  prevented  an  expansion  of  credits, 
to  which  a  redundant  and  especially  a  depreci- 
ated currency  is  always  an  incentive,  and  has 
had  no  little  "influence  in  stimulating  labor  and 
increasing  production.  Industry  has  been 
steadily  returning  to  the  healthy  channels 
from  which  it  was  diverted  during  the  war, 
and  although  incomes  have  been  small,  and 
trade  generally  inactive,  in  no  other  commer- 
cial country  has  there  been  less  financial  em- 
barrassment than  in  the  United  States. 

There  is  not  an  intelligent  merchant  in  the 
country  that  does  itot  know  that  since  the  con- 
traction of  the  currency  there  has  been  a  large 
expansion  of  credits.  This  is  well  known  to 
every  observer,  and  every  man  in  business  is 
aware  that  production,  industry  and  labor,  in- 
stead of  "  entering  healthier  channels,"  was 
being  steadily  contracted  with  the  contraction 
of  the  currency.  This  cannot  be  denied,  and 
we  charge  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  with 
ignorance,  or  with  a  wilful  perversion  of  the 
truth. 

The  Secretary  has  contended  from  the  first 
that  a  redundant  currency  is  a  disastrous  curse, 
but  he  is  forced  to  admit  that  "  there  has  been 
less  financial  embarrassment  in  this  than  in  any 
other  country."  As  the  other  governments 
have  redeemed  in  specie,  does  it  not  prove  to 
be  true,  what  he  attempts  to  deny,  that  the  use 
of  an  irredeemable  paper  money  is  beneficial. 

We  call  particular  attention  to  the  remarka- 
ble statement  contained  in  the  following  ex- 
tract. If  it  is  true,  then  every  statistical  re- 
port that  has  been  published,  as  well  as  the 
reports  of  the  Agricultural  Bureaus  and  socie- 


ties, and  those  of  railroad  companies,  etc.,  are 
false ;  for  their  statements  and  figures  exhibit 
a  vast  increase  of  production,  freight,  income, 
etc.,  etc.    He  says : 

Trade  is  to  be  uninterrupted — and  money, 
now  considered  scarce,  will  be  found  to  be 
abundant.  The  actual  legitimate  business  of 
the  country  is  not  larger  than  it  was  in  1860, 
when  300,000,000  of  coin  and  bank  notes  were 
an  ample  circulating  medium,  and  when  an 
addition  of  50,000,000  would  have  made  it  ex- 
cessive. 

Any  argument  that  requires  the  support  of 
such  a  statement  to  sustain  it,  must  be  baseless 
indeed. 

The  following  is  equally  fallacious  : 
An  irredeemable  currency  is  a  financial  dis- 
ease which  retards  growth  instead  of  encour- 
, aging  it;  which  stimulates  speculation,  but 
diminishes  labor.  A  healthy  growth  is  to  be 
secured  by  the  removal  of  the  disease,  and  not 
by  postponing  the  proper  treatment  of  it  in 
the  expectation  that  the  vigorous  constitution 
of  the  patient  will  eventually  overcome  it. 

The  Treasury  notes  vitalized  every  depart- 
ment of  trade  and  industry — excepting,  per- 
haps, the  Treasury  Department,  which  contains 
several  thousand  drones  drawing  large  salaries. 
This  Government  money  has  paid  for  the  build 
ing  of  tens  of  thousands  of  steam  engines  and 
locomotives,  which  are  at  this  moment  at  work, 
with  millions  and  billions  of  iron  hands,  pro- 
ducing wealth. 

We  cut  the  following  article  from  the  Trib- 
zme,  and  which  exhibits  the  activity  and  in- 
crease of  taxable  wealth  in  a  single  city. 
Hundreds  of  other  well-authenticated  state- 
ments could  be  given  to  prove  that  the  Secre- 
tary has  no  correct  idea  of  the  basiness  and 
progress  of  the  country,  or  that  he  makes  these 
statements  from  sinister  motives. 

GROWTH  OF  CHICAGO. 

Chicago,  which  in  1831  contained  only  12 
families,  has  increased  during  the  years  1860 
to  1868  from  a  population  of  109,263  to  220,000. 
The  assessed  value  of  its  real  and  personal 
property  has  increased  during  the  same  period 
from  $37,053,512  to  $192,249,644,  while  the 
municipal  taxation  has  risen  from  $373,315  to 
$2,489,245.  Since  the  war  began,  Chicago  has 
paid  $24,628,392  taxes  to  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment. 

During  the  past  year  the  city  has  paid  $2,- 
569,035  for  public  improvements,  has  built  14^ 
miles  of  sewer,  paved  29  miles  of  street,  five 


THE  REPORT  OF  THE  SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY. 


21 


of  tliem  with  Nicolson  pavement,  which  was 
invented  and  first  applied  in  Chicaoro,  where 
the  first  Isicolson  pavements  ever  laid,  now 
some  13  years  old,  are  still  in  good  preserva- 
tion. It  is  estimated  that  during?  the  past  year 
7,000  buildiniTS  have  been  erected,  at  a  total 
cost  of  $8,000,000.  This  is  fewer  than  were 
erected  in  1866,  but  the  difference  is  more  than 
compensated  in  the  great  value  of  many  of  the 
blocks  and  buildings  erected  during  the  last 
year,  viz.: 

Erected  at  a  cost  of  $400,000  and  upwards.  .  2 


At  a  cost  of  $200,000  and  upward   2 

At  $150,000  and  upward   4 

At  $100,000  and  upward   5 

At  $8  ,000  and  upward   1 

At  $50,000  and  upward   3 

At  $25,000  and  upward  25 

At  $15,000  and  upward  27 

At  $10,000  and  upward  35 

The  following  figures  represent  the  extent  of 
business  done  in  ten  leading  lines  : 

Bushels  of  grain   59,740,000 

Hogs  packed   850,000 

Cattle  packed   ."0.000 

Lumber,  lath,  etc.,  feet  959,000,000 

Dry  goods  (last  year  40)  $30,000,000 

Groceries   35,000,000 

Hardware   20,000.000 

Boots  and  shoes   15,000,000 

Clothing   10,000,000 

Crockery   4,000,000 


These  foot  up  a  total  of  about  $206,000,000 
for  the  wholesale  trade  in  these  articles  alone  ; 
the  total  would  swell  to  at  least  $230,000,000, 
and  the  retail  business  would  make  another 
$75,000,000,  exclusive  of  the  sales  of  liquors, 
ale,  and  beer,  giving  a  total  of  about  $305,000,- 
000  worth  of  commercial  business  for  the  year. 

The  receipts  of  the  railroad  systems  exceed 
twelve  millions  ;  the  receipts  for  amusements 
were  $583,850. 

The  manufactures  for  the  year  are  set  down 
at  $77,000,000.  For  a  period  of  peace,  such  a 
growth  would  be  marvelous,  and,  during  an 
era  of  war,  no  city  of  past  or  present  times 
surpasses  it.  The  growth  of  Brooklyn  and  of 
New  York  has  been  enormous  during  the  same 
period.  Throughout  the  Xorth,  and  especially 
the  West  and  Northwest,  there  has  been  a 
steady,  sound,  and  healthy  growth,  of  which, 
however,  the  growth  of  Chicago  must  be  con- 
ceded to  be  the  magnificent  and  truly  unprece- 
dented culmination. 

With  such  an  array  of  facts  as  this  editorial 
presents  it  is  astonishing  that  any  person  who 
has  any  regard  for  truth  and  consistency, 
should  depreciate  the  currency  which  has 
been  the  chief  agent  in  stimulating  such 
wonderful  growth. 

Cl-Qvernor  Fenton  in  his  late  message  says : 


There  is  a  natural  and  just  solicitude  as  to 
the  ability  of  the  State  to  sustain  the  burdens 
resting  upon  it,  and  in  regard  to  the  continued 
ease  with  which  taxation  has  so  far  been  borne. 
It  is  apprehended  in  some  quarters  that  there 
are  financial  trials  impending  which  will  prove 
far  more  severe  than  any  in  the  past.  It  seems 
to  me  that  there  is  only  required  a  prudent 
economy  in  all  matters  pertaining  to  the  ad- 
micistration  of  government,  and  a  thorough 
revision  of  the  whole  tax  and  assessment  sys- 
tem to  vindicate  a  reasonable  expectation' of 
our  continued  prosperity.  Our  wealth  and  our 
resources  are  so  vast  that  no  reasoning  founded 
upon  our  past  condition  during  periods  of  great 
public  indebtedness,  is  directly  applicable 
now.  Material  wealth  in  every  form  has  im- 
mensely increased.  This  is  conspicuously  true 
of  New  York,  as  it  is  of  a  great  area  over 
which  new  States  are  forming.  As  a  fair 
measure  of  this  advance,  it  will  be  seen  that 
the  New  York  City  Banks  in  Nov^^mber,  1860, 
as  represented  by  their  loans,  conducted  a  bus- 
iness of  one  hundred  and  twenty-two  millions 
of  dollars,  and  at  the  same  date  in  1867,  the 
volume  ot  their  loans  was  nearly  two  hundred 
and  forty-eight  mi  lions  of  dollars,  or  more 
than  double  the  business  of  1860.  Hardly 
less  significant,  if  not  in  so  great  a  ratio,  is 
the  edvance,  in  most  departments  of  business 
and  enterprise,  as  will  be  found  by  reference 
to  the  tables  of  commerce  and  tonnage  ;  rail- 
road and  insurance  capital  ;  mercantile,  man- 
ufacturing  and  mechanical  employments,  and 
the  value  of  real  and  personal  estate. 

This  furnishes  positive  proof  of  the  rapid  in- 
crease of  wealth  created  by  the  use  of  an  irre- 
deemable Government  currency,  and  utterly 
demolishes  the  statement  of  the  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury.  It  is  noticeable  that  Governor 
Fenton,  being  in  fear  of  the  New  York  capi- 
talists,  dare  not  recommend  the  continued  use 

and  expansion  of  the  United  States  money  

that  imparted  the  ability  to  the  State  and 
people  to  sustain  themselves  in  meeting  enor- 
mous taxation. 

The  Secretary  makes  the  following  declara- 
tion : 

Money  is  in  demand  at  the  present  time, 
not  so  much  to  move  crops  as  to  hold  them— ^ 
not  to  bring  them  at  reasonable  pricts  within 
the  reach  of  consumers,  but  to  withhold  them 
from  market  until  a  large  advance  of  prices 
can  be  established.  Let  the  great  staples  of 
the  country  come  forward  and  be  sold  at  mar- 
ket prices  at  such  prices  as,  while  the  producer 
is  fairly  remunerated,  will  increase  consump- 
tion and  exports. 

This  paragraph  is  well  calculated  to  deceive 


22 


OUR  NATIONAL  FINANCES. 


the  untliouglitful.  We  are  told  that  "  the  de- 
mand for  money  is  not  so  much  to  purchase 
crops  as  to  hold  them." 

Suppose  a  speculator — all  merchants  who 
deal  in  provisions,  grain,  etc.,  are  "  specula- 
tors " — borrows  one  million  of  dollars  to  pur- 
chase grain,  etc..  on  speculation  ?  The  money 
is  paid  out  to  farmers,  and  circulates  freely 
through  the  community,  making  money  plenty 
and  decreasing  the  demand.  If  he  holds  the 
grain  till  doomsday,  it  would  not  increase  the 
demand  for  money.  If  he  held  it  until  his 
note  became  due,  and  the  bank  renewed  it^Jio 
amount  of  money  would  be  disturbed.  If  the 
bank  refused  to  accommodate  him,  he  would 
be  obliged  to  sell  to  pay  the  bank.  The  bank 
that  received  the  money  would  loan  it  to 
others.  Thus  we  perceive  that  the  "  specula-  ! 
tor"  instead  of  making  money  scarce,  in-  j 
creased  the  circulation.  | 

The  operation,  would,  perhaps,  increase  the  ! 
price  of  grain  a  few  cents  per  bushel,  and  ben-  | 
efit  the  farmers  to  that  extent.    But  the  fact  | 
is,  that  the  foreign  markets  make  the  price  of  | 
flour  and  grain.  The  grain  crop  of  the  United 
States  is  so  enormous,  that  no  combination  of  ' 
speculators  can  control  it  or  the  price.  It  will 
vary  with  prices  current  in  Europe,  in  spite  of 
the  efforts  of  speculators  to  make  the  price. 

The  balance  of  his  argument  as  quoted 
above  is  simply  ridiculous.  This  is  one  of  the 
Secretary's  hobbies.  He  imagines  it  is  the 
duty  of  the  Government  to  make  money  scarce, 
and  consequently  to  reduce  the  price  of  cot- 
ton, tobacco,  pork,  flour,  grain,  cheese,  etc., 
etc.,  in  order  to  "  increase  exports,"  to  make 
the  United  States  "  a  good  place  to  purchase 
in."  No  man  of  common  intelligence  can  be 
made  to  believe  that  farmers  and  planters  will 
raise  wheat  and  cotton  more  readily  for  one 
dollar  per  bushel  than  they  will  for  two  dol- 
lars, or  cotton  at  ten  cents  per  pound  than 
they  will  at  20  or  30  cents  per  pound — is  ar- 
rant nonsense.  Suppose  Congress  should  in- 
crease the  currency  two  hundred  millions  of 
dollars,  and  the  premium  on  gold  advanced  20 
per  cent.,  and  wheat  that  now  sells  at  Chi- 
cago for  $2  per  bushel,  and  in  New  York  at 
|2  50,  should  command  |3  and  $3  50,  what 


would  be  the  effect  on  exports  ?  Experience 
teaches  it  would  increase  them.  The  greatest 
rush  of  American  produce,  grain,  provisions, 
lumber,  etc.,  to  Europe  and  South  America 
was  in  those  months  when  the  premium  on 
gold  was  the  highest.  The  statistics  prove 
this.  The  increase  of  the  currency  value  is 
not  only  an  inducement  to  sell  and  ship 
produce  and  manufactured  articles,  but 
to  increase  the  quantity  manufactured  and 
raised. 

The  planter  and  farmer,  if  he  is  certain  of 
good  prices,  will  purchase  bone  dust,  phos- 
phate, guano,  etc.,  and  also  increase  the  num- 
ber of  acres  planted ;  but  low  prices,  as  under 
the  "  healthy "  administration  of  Pierce,  Bu- 
chanan, &  Co.,  when  corn  was  sold  for  fuel,  and 
public  soup  houses  were  opened  to  keep  our 
workmen  from  starvation,  discourage  enter- 
prise, and  farmers  become  dilatory,  and  pro- 
duction, as  well  as  consumption,  is  enormously 
reduced.  There  have  been  worse  calamities 
than  a  high  premium  for  gold. 

Mr.  McCuUoch  has  been  seduced  by  the  Eng- 
lish writers,  if  not  by  baser  motives,  to  believe, 
and  it  requires  no  argument  to  prove  it.  If  you 
manufacture  or  raise  productions  very  cheap 
you  can  undersell  your  neighbors.  But  as 
this  requires  cheap  labor,  and  as  cheap  labor 
involves  poverty  and  pauperism,  it  is  not 
suited  for  the  free  and  intelligent  people  of  the 
United  States  who  propose  to  reward  industry 
and  elevate  the  laborers.  Ojie  of  the  most 
noticeable  omissions  or  characteristics  of  the 
Secretary's  Report  is,  there  is  no  plea  made  or 
sympathy  exhibited  for  producers.  When  it  is 
remembered  that  nine-tenths  of  the  population 
are,  either  from  choice  or  necessity,  employed 
in  industrial  pursuits,  this  is  suggestive.  There 
is  no  recommendation  to  reduce  the  high  rate 
of  interest,  which  is  the  curse  of  the  country, 
a  simoon  that  blasts  every  green  and  beautiful 
thing,  and  swallows  up  the  earnings  of  the 
people.  The  only  economy  he  recommends  is 
to  destroy  the  people's  money,  reduce  the  rate 
of  wages  and  the  price  of  produce,  and  stop 
all  improvements  by  the  government,  how- 
ever necessary  and  profitable. 

The  following  extract  from  the  report  ex- 


THE  REPORT  OF  THE  SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY. 


23 


hibits  tlie  Secretary's  feelings  in  regard  to  tlie 
planters  and  farmers  : 

Xext  to  the  Stock  Board  of  tlie  commercial 
metropolis,  the  opposition  to  the  policy  of  con- 
traction has  been  most  decided  in  those  sec- 
tions where,  by  reason  of  short  crops,  the  peo- 
ple have  been  less  prosperous  than  heretofore. 
Unfortunately,  in  the  same  sections,  the  har- 
vest has  been  again  unsatisfactory,  and  the  de- 
mand, not  only  for  a  cessation  of  contraction, 
but  for  an  increase  of  paper  money,  may  thus  ■ 
be  more  pressing  than  ever.    This  demand,  no  ; 
matter  from  what  quarter  it  comes,  or  by  what  I 
interest  sustained,  should,  iu  the  opinion  of  the 
Secretary,  be  inflexibly  resisted  by  Congress.  .  .  i 

Throughout  a  considerable  portion  of  the  , 
best  grain-growing  sections  of  the  United 
States  there  has  been,  during  the  past  year, 
great  complaint  of  a  scarcity  of  money,  and 
yet  no  single  article  of  agricultural  product, 
except  wool,  was  to  be  sold  there  for  which 
there  was  not  a  purchaser  at  more  than  remu-  \ 
nerating,  if  not  exorbitant,  prices.  j 

We  leave  the  planters  and  farmers  to  answer  [ 
as  to  "  the  exorbitant  prices "  that  they  are  ! 
receiving.  But  wish  to  call  particular  atten-  j 
tion  to  the  price  and  article  of  icool,  which,  it  j 
appears,  is  sufficiently  cheap  to  please  him.  j 
The  argument  that  is  most  frequently  used  by  , 
the  destructionists,  that  "  a  redundant  inflated  ! 
currency  inflated  prices."  I 

Wool  and  mutton  are  staple  articles,  and  are 
selling  at  such  extremely  low  prices  as  to  make 
it  a  ruinous  business  to  keep  or  raise  sheep. 
If  the  Secretary's  theory  is  correct,  that  a 
"  plethoric  currency  "  "  enhances  prices,"  how 
can  he  account  for  the  great  depression  in  the 
woollen  and  wool  business. 

Coal  is  another  article  in  common  use,  and 
is  selling  at  the  present  time  for  less  than  one-  ■ 
half  the  price  that  it  brought  when  there  was  j 
a  much  larger  amount  of  currency  in  cir-  , 
culation  that  there  is  at  the  present  time.  | 

Cotton,  a  staple  article  and  one  of  "the  com- 
modities of  common  life,"  has  been  regularly  { 
falling  in  price  with  the  contraction  of  the  cur-  j 
rency.  ! 

If  there  is  truth  that  can  be  demonstrated  | 
by  facts,  it  is,  if  there  was  not  a  good  demand  I 
for  the  produce  of  the  Northern  agriculturists  ' 
in  Europe,  and  our  farmers  and  the  South-  i 
ern  planters  were  not  protected  ly  tlie  premium  \ 
on  gold,  the  farming  interests  would  be  ruined.  ! 
If  the  grain  and  provision  markets  were  as  dull 


and  inactive  as  the  wool  market,  it  would  be  a 
calamity  that  would  prostrate  the  credit  and 
bankrupt  the  nation.  We  warn  the  destruction- 
ists, if  they  ruin  the  business  and  depress  values, 
as  proposed  by  the  Secretary  and  his  friends, 
there  will  be  a  revolution  in  financial  and  po- 
litical affairs  that  can  only  be  described  in  the 
mystical  language  of  the  Apocalypse. 

If  we  are  dependent  on  the  foreign  market 
what  is  the  remedy  ?  There  is  only  one — pro- 
tection. We  must  build  up  or  create  a  market 
at  home.  If  it  is  asked  how  this  is  to  be  ac- 
complished, we  answer,  protect  American  man- 
ufactures and  supply  the  people  with  a  cheap 
and  ample  circulating  medium,  and  vigorously 
proceed  with  business  and  improvements. 

Cheap  money,  "  inflation  "  as  it  is  called,  en- 
ables the  people  to  make  large  purchases. 
Consumption  must  be  encouraged,  if  produc- 
tion is  to  be  profitable  and  business  active. 

Why  is  there  such  a  limited  demand  for 
wool  and  woollens,  or  rather  why  are  the  sales 
so  limited?  Millions  of  men  and  boys  are 
obliged  to  wear  their  old  clothes  this  Winter 
and  suffer  by  cold,  and  other  millions  of  women 
and  girls  are  obliged  to  dispense  with  warm 
cloaks  and  woollens,  because  the  miserable  pol- 
icy of  contraction  was  forced  upon  the  people, 
holding  in  its  deadly  coils  the  business  and 
manufacturing  interests.  Mr.  Wells,  in  his 
report,  calls  it  "  painful,"  yet  recommends  the 
painful  business  to  proceed. 

The  store-houses  are  full  to  overflowing  with 
wool ;  hundreds  of  mills  are  idle,  or  running 
on  short  time ;  tens  of  thousands  of  spinners 
and  weavers  are  out  of  employ ;  the  peo- 
ple are  only  half  clad ;  those  who  have 
money  fear  the  effects  of  contraction  and  hoard 
their  means,  and  those  who  have  no  work  and 
no  money  cannot  purchase  ;  and  thus  we  see 
one  of  the  most  important  interests  of  the 
country  going  to  ruin  from  the  mistaken  poli- 
cy of  contraction. 

If,  as  the  destructionists  allege,  that  "infla- 
tion "  increases  the  premium  on  gold,  it  is  for- 
tunate that  just  in  proportion  as  the  premium 
is  increased,  protection  is  increased,  for  it  has 
precisely  the  same  effect  as  a  tariff,  and  at  the 
same  time  increases  the  pay  of  agriculturists. 

It  is  charged  that  the  letters  of  Messrs.  Ste- 


OUR  NATIONAL  FINANCES. 


vens  and  Butler  will  prevent  the  further  sale  of 
the  United  States  Bonds  in  Europe.  If  they 
do,  it  will  be  fortunate,  and  if  we  could  fright- 
en the  holders  in  Europe,  or  induce  them  by 
other  means  to  remit  the  $300,000,000  of  those 
they  have,  and  draw  the  $300,000,000  of  gold 
the  President  says  is  lying  idle,  it  would  be 
more  fortunate  still ;  but  this  is  as  improbable 
as  the  argument  of  the  contraction ists,  who 
say  if  we  resume  specie  payments,  $300,000,000 
will  be  added  to  the  circulation — that  is,  the 
people  who  refuse  to  sell  their  gold  at  40  per 
cent,  premium  will  readily  sell  it  at  par.  The 
fact  is,  there  is  no  such  amount  of  coin  in  the 
country.    The  Secretary  affirms  : 

The  prices  of  most  kinds  of  property  in  the 
United  States  advanced  near  three-fold  during 
the  war,  but  this  advance  was  mainly  the  re- 
sult of  the  increase  of  the  circulating  medium, 
and  in  reality  only  indicated  its  depreciation. 
The  purchasing  power  of  the  money  in  circu- 
lation was  diminished  in  the  ratio  that  its  vol- 
ume was  increased.  The  farmer,  for  example, 
received  $3  a  bushel  for  his  wheat,  but,  except 
for  the  payment  of  his  debts,  these  $3  were  of 
no  more  value  to  him  than  $1  was  before  the 
suspension  of  specie  payments.  The  same  was 
true  of  other  kinds  of  property  and  of  labor. 
The  advance,  except  so  lar  as  it  was  the  result  of 
an  increased  demand,  was  apparent  only  and  un- 
real. The  same  cause  is  sustaining  prices  at  the 
present  time,  and  will  continue  to  do  so  as  long 
as  the  cause  exists,  but  the  advantages  result- 
ing from  it  are  merely  imaginary,  while  the 
evils  are  positive  and  actual. 

Those  who  sold  their  farms  and  property  and 
converted  them  into  gold-bearing  bonds,  and 
those  who  have  been  enabled  to  build  new 
dwellings,  factories,  stores — as  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  people  have — and  the  laborers 
who  have  added  tens  of  millions  to  their  de- 
posits in  the  savings  banks,  or  been  assisted  to 
purchase  farms,  houses  and  lots,  etc.,  know  how 
to  value  such  statements. 

The  man  that  attempts  to  prove  that  the 
loyal  States  have  not  immensely  improved  in 
wealth  since  the  circulation  of  irredeemable 
currency,  is  an  object  of  pity  or  derision.  Rhode 
Island  may  be  an  exception  ;  thaX  State  was 
about  finished  before  the  war,  and  almost  every 
house  was,  or  contained,  a  bank,  and  it  is  notori- 
ous that  the  capitalists  and  snobs  settling  in 
Newport  killed  that  beautiful  watering  place. 

The  farmer  that  could  scarcely  pay  hit*  taxes 


with  wheat  at  75  cents  per  bushel,  at  $2  has 
become  independent  and  has  surrounded  him- 
self with  carriages,  improved  machinery,  tools, 
books,  etc.,  etc..  giving  employment  to  artisans, 
mechanics,  laborers,  etc.,  who  have  been  able, 
in  turn,  to  purchase  more  and  better  clothing, 
food,  etc.,  giving  life  and  activity  to  trade  and 
commerce.  Mr.  McCulloch  and  the  million- 
aires pronounce  this  unfortunate,  extravagant, 
and  demoralizing. 

It  is  a  hard  lesson  for  some  men  to  learn,  but 
learn  it  they  must,  that  increased  circulation  of 
Government  money  increases  the  demand  for 
all  descriptions  of  property  ;  and  demand  is  cer- 
tain to  stimulate  production,  and  production 
adds  to  the  wealth  of  the  nation  and  the  wel- 
fare of  the  population.  These  plain  truths 
cannot  be  ridiculed  out  of  existence  or  avoided 
by  rhetorical  sentences  or  fine  speeches. 

Gold  and  silver,  as  the  only  legal  tender  for 
the  payment  of  debts,  is  adapted  for  aristocratic 
governments  ;  but  is  incompatible  with  the 
success  of  free  institutions,  which  to  be  success- 
ful must  be  administered  for  the  welfare  of  the 
laboring  classes.  No  wise  or  beneficent  gov- 
ernment will  allow  panics  in  the  money  mar- 
ket, which  curtail  business,  compel  idleness, 
create  dissipation  and  dissatisfaction.  If  capi- 
talists or  banks  are  allowed  to  demand  specie, 
they  can  at  pleasure,  and  for  selfish  and  base 
purposes,  by  suddenly  expanding  or  contract- 
ing loans,  convulse  the  country  and  ruin  men 
and  business,  augmenting  diflaculties  and  con- 
trolling elections,  and  subverting  free  institu- 
tions into  engines  of  oppression.  No  country 
can  be  permanently  prosperous  while  capital- 
ists have  the  power  to  reduce  or  increase  the 
values  of  property  at  pleasure.  Some  means 
should  be  devised  by  which  those  having  am- 
ple security  can  obtain  accommodations  at  a 
just  and  equitable  rate  of  interest,  without  the 
sacrifice  of  their  property.  We  are  aware  of  the 
nature  of  the  objections  that  are  made  and  the 
difficulties  that  are  supposed  to  exist  in  the 
Government  acting  as  banker  we  think  that  the 
circumstances  of  our  Government  are  such,  and 
will  be  for  some  years  to  come,  as  only  to  re- 
quite it  to  pay  off  the  5-20  Bonds  in  Treasury 
notes,  and  the  difficulties  we  have  considered 


THE  REPORT  OF  THE  SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY. 


25 


would  be  avoided.  It  can  make  money  cheap, 
and  should  do  so. 

In  the  following  we  liave  a  specimen  of  the 
sophistry  of  the  English  writers,  who  worship 
the  gold  sovereign  with  as  besotted  an  adora- 
tion as  the  poor  heathen  that  prostrates  him- 
self before  a  metallic  god.  The  Secretary 
adopts  their  arguments  and  says  :  "  No  sane 
man  supposes  that  his  own  wealth,  or  the 
wealth  of  the  nation,  is  increased  by  the  de- 
preciation of  the  standard  by  which  it  is  meas- 
ured. If  the  paper  circulation  of  the  United 
States  should  be  doubled  during  the  next  year, 
and  the  prices  of  property  should  be  likewise 
doubled,  would  it  be  imagined  that  the  real 
value  of  property  would  be  thus  advanced  ? 
Or,  if  the  paper  currency  should,  during  the 
same  period,  be  reduced  fifty  per  cent.,  and 
prices  of  property  should  decline  correspond- 
ingly, would  it  follow  that  the  real  value  of 
property  would  thus  decline  ?  In  the  one  case 
the  value  of  the  currency  would  be  reduced  in 
proportion  to  its  increase  in  amount.  In  the 
other,  the  currency  would  be  increased  in  value 
as  it  was  diminished  in  amount.  The  increase 
or  decrease  of  prices  would,  if  no  counteract- 
ing causes  intervened,  be  the  natural  result  of 
the  increase  or  decrease  of  the  measure  of 
value,  while  real  values  remain  unchanged." 

The  value  of  a  piece  of  property  cannot  be 
measured  by  the  price  it  cost  in  gold,  or  would 
sell  at  a  forced  sale,  but  by  the  amount  of  rent 
it  will  produce. 

The  price  or  value  of  property  is  increased 
or  diminished  in  accordance  to  the  demand  for 
it.  If  there  is  a  short  crop  of  wheat  in  En- 
gland and  France,  it  requires  one-third  more 
gold  to  purchase  food  for  the  people  ;  the 
amount,  of  course,  will  vary  according  to  the 
state  of  the  crops  in  Germany,  Russia,  and  in 
the  United  States.  The  number  of  bushels 
are  not  increased  or  diminished  from  what  was 
required  the  previous  year  ;  there  is  no  differ- 
ence in  the  amount  of  nourishment  in  the 
grain.  Has  the  value  of  the  grain  changed, 
or  the  value  of  gold  ? 

The  price  of  productive  property  depreciates 
in  proportion  to  the  increase  of  the  value  of 
the  dollar  that  measures  it,  and  the  value  of 
the  dollar  increases  or  diminishes  according  to 


the  rate  of  interest  that  it  will  command,  and 
therefore  fluctuates  whether  it  is  a  gold  or  pa- 
per dollar. 

Gold  may  be  dispensed  with — grain  cannot. 
If  all  the  gold  coin  in  the  United  States  should 
be  shipped  at  once  from  the  country,  the  prop- 
erty of  the  country  would  not  be  decreased  in 
value,  excepting  to  the  extent  of  the  value  of 
the  gold.  And  if  it  was  exchanged  for  its 
value  in  our  bonds  held  in  Europe,  the  people 
and  Government  would  be  benefitted.  A  house 
and  lot,  or  a  farm,  would  be  worth  none  the  less 
(probably  more)  because  there  were  no  gold  dol- 
lars in  the  country  "  to  measure  the  value  of 
them,"  and  some  people  of  dull  comprehension 
would  learn  that  we  have  dollars  that  "  measure 
values,"  and  perhaps  would  consent  that  Con- 
gress should  authorize  a  sufiicient  number  of 
these  "  measures  "  to  measure  and  deliver  all 
the  grain,  produce,  etc.,  etc.,  without  waiting 
to  use  their  neighbor's  measure,  but  pay  or  re- 
ceive his  pay  without  credit  or  delay.  Waiting 
to  borrow  a  gold  measure,  when  you  can  make 
a  better  one,  is  evidence  of  imbecility. 

It  will  be  asked,  how  can  we  pay  for  impor- 
tations ?  We  answer,  with  Government  three 
per  cent,  bonds  and  American  produce.  But 
suppose  they  would  not  receive  your  green- 
backs or  three  per  cent,  bonds?  Then  we 
would  keep  them  at  home  and  be  the  more  in- 
dependent, and  raise  sufficient  cotton,  tobacco, 
grain,  cheese,  etc.,  to  purchase  what  we  re- 
quire. We  can  dispense  with  their  brandies, 
wines,  cigars,  pictures,  fancy  articles,  etc., 
which  they  are  now  forcing  upon  us  and  re- 
ceiving gold-bearing  six  per  cent,  bonds  at 
about  sixty  cents  on  the  dollar.  If  we  should 
refuse  to  trade  with  them  on  better  terms,  think 
you  that  they  would  long  refuse  to  exchange 
their  trash  for  three  per  cent,  gold  bonds,  equal 
in  value  and  security  to  the  British  consols  ? 
Certainly  they  would  not. 

Other  nations  purchase  of  us  only  those  arti- 
cles that  they  are  obliged  to  obtain  ;  on  the  con- 
trary, we  purchase  hundreds  of  millions  of 
dollars  in  nominal  value  which  we  could  bet- 
ter do  without. 

Money  is  a  creature  of  law  ;  therefore,  the 
Government  should  control  the  value  of  it,  and 
to  a  great  extent  the  importations.    To  make 


26 


OUR  NATIONAL  FINANCES. 


money  "and  fix  the  value  thereof"  is  the  espe 
cial  duty  of  Congress.  The  mistake  that  is 
made  by  intelligent  persons  is,  they  do  not  suf- 
ficiently distinguish  between  money  stamped 
and  bearing  the  seal  of  a  great  and  rich  nation 
and  the  thing  called  money,  but  is  not,  issued 
by  corporations  and  individuals. 

The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  professes  to 
fear  that  the  nation  will  be  ruined  by  "  a  re- 
dundant currency."  No  nation  was  ever  in- 
jured by  using  a  well-regulated  currency  issued 
for  legitimate  purposes.  But  the  want  of  an 
ample  circulating  medium  is  the  mother  of 
confasion  and  anarchy,  and  has  been  the  cause 
of  hundreds  of  revolutions.  The  prime  cause 
of  the  Rebellion  was  poverty  and  distress 
caused  by  the  mismanagement,  or  rather  no 
management,  of  our  financial  affairs.  The 
great  majority  of  planters  and  merchants  in 
the  South  were  bankrupt.  They  knew  that  a 
few  men  in  the  Northern  and  Eastern  cities 
were  absorbing  their  earnings.  The  produc- 
tions of  the  Southern  States  were  consumed 
by  heavy  commissions,  freights  and  high  rates 
of  interest.  They  supposed  that  the  tariff 
robbed  them,  when  in  reality  this  poverty  was 
caused  by  being  deprived  of  a  circulating  me- 
dium. If  the  times  had  been  good,  and  the 
people  supplied  with  Government  money,  there 
would  have  been  no  rebellion.  Poverty  breeds 
discontent  and  civil  wars.  A  Government  that 
fails  to  make  the  times  good  is  not  worth  pre- 
serving, and  the  political  party,  either  Demo- 
cratic or  Republican,  that  allows  distress  from 
want  of  work  or  want  of  means  to  prosecute 
the  industries  of  the  nation,  deserves  to  be  de- 
feated,  and  will  be,  no  matter  what  its  profes- 
sions are. 

The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  as  we  charged 
in  the  commencement  of  this  chapter,  has,  to 
the  best  of  his  abilities,  endeavored  to  bring 
odium  upon  his  predecessors  and  upon  Con 
gress,  as  the  following  extracts  from  his  report 
prove : 

The  business  of  the  country  is  involved  in  in- 
extricable difficulties.  But,  although  tlie  issue 
of  these  notes  was  limited,  and  we  thus  escaped 
the  disasters  which  would  have  overwhelmed 
the  country  without  such  a  limitation,  it  can 
hardly  be  doubted  that  the  resort  to  them  was  | 
a  misfortune.    If  this  means  of  raising  money 


had  not  been  adopted,  bonds  would  have  un- 
doubtedly been  sold  at  a  heavy  discount,  but 
the  fact  that  they  were  thus  sold,  without  de- 
basing the  currency,  would  have  induced  great- 
er economy  in  the  use  of  the  proceeds,  while 
the  discount  on  the  bonds  would  scarcely  have 
exceeded  the  actual  depreciation  of  the  notes 

below  the  coin  standard  

The  financial  evils  under  which  the  country 
has  been  suffering  for  some  years  past,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  dangers  which  loom  up  in  the 
future,  are,  in  a  great  degree,  to  be  traced  to 
the  direct  issues  by  the  Government  of  an  in- 
convertible currency  with  the  legal  attributes 
of  money. 

A  man  that  will  publish  such  statements,  in 
view  of  the  circumstances  and  past  history  of 
the  times,  is  unfit  for  any  public  station. 

It  is  a  fact  beyond  controversy,  that  there 
was  not  sufficient  money.  Gold  and  State  Bank 
Bills,  in  the  Cities  of  New  York,  Philadelphia 
and  Boston,  to  pay  the  expenses  of  the  army 
for  sixty  days.  The  Banks  of  New  York  were 
so  fearful  of  being  called  upon  for  specie,  had 
redeemed  their  circulation  or  reduced  it  to 
eight  millions  of  dollars. 

Mr.  Chase's  worst  enemies,  if  intelligent,  will 
confess  that  at  the  commencement  of  his  ne- 
gotiations with  the  Banks  and  Capitalists 
he  evinced  wisdom  and  skill  in  his  finan- 
cial transactions  with  them.  Being  a  Bul- 
lionist  from  conviction,  he  had  no  true  ap- 
preciation of  the  power  of  Government  mon- 
ey. But  he  deserves  the  thanks  of  the  country 
for  his  manly  and  patriotic  resistance  to  the 
proposal  of  issuing  long  bonds.  His  arguments 
in  favor  of  short  bonds  were  able  and  unanswer- 
able, and  proved  he  was  a  devoted  friend  to  the 
best  interests  of  the  people. 

The  attempt  of  Mr.  McCuUoch  to  assail  the 
action  of  Mr.  Chase  and  the  wisdom  of  Con- 
gress, is  an  exhibition  of  puny  weakness  and 
imbecility  attacking  an  impregnable  position. 

In  giving  a  history  of  negotiating  loans  he 
magnifies  his  own  acts  and  says : 

There  was  no  time  to  try  experiments  or  to 
correct  errors,  if  any  had  been  committed,  in 
the  kind  of  securities  which  had  been  put  upon 
the  market.  Creditors  were  importunate,  the 
unpaid  requisitions  in  the  Department  were 
largely  in  excess  of  the  cash  in  the  Treasury, 
the  vouchers  issued  to  contractors  for  the  neces- 
sary supplies  of  the  army  and  navy  were  being 
sold  at  from  10  to  20  per  cent  discount — indi- 
cating by  their  depreciation  how  uncertain  was 
the  prospect  of  early  payment. 


THE  REPORT  OF  MR.  WELLS,  SPECIAL  COMMISSIONER,  Etc.  27 


This  proves  his  unfitness  for  the  office  he  oc- 
cupies. The  army  contractors  and  soldiers 
were  compelled  to  submit  to  20  per  cent,  shave 
on  Government  vouchers  because  the  Secretary 
was  so  stupid  as  to  suppose  that  Treasury 
notes  were  more  valuable  when  borrowed  from 
capitalists  than  those  paid  out  fresh  from  the 
Treasury.  In  taking  the  next  contracts  to 
supply  the  Government,  these  Contractors,  of 
course,  added  20  per  cent  to  their  bids  to  cover 
the  loss  in  having  their  orders  shaved.  The 
Secretary  seems  to  suppose  that  no  money 
transactions  are  legitimate  unless  interest  and 
commissions  are  submitted  to  ;  he  is  one  of  the 
believers  in  the  smart  saying  that  "  you  cannot 
get  something  for  nothing." 

While  professing  to  be  in  favor  of  the  strict- 
est economy,  he  informed  us  that  he  has  in- 
creased the  funded  debt,  the  interest  of  which 
is  payable  in  gold,  $686,584,800.  The  differ- 
ence whether  this  is  paid  in  gold  or  currency 
will  amount  to  a  larger  sum  than  Gen.  Grant 
can  save  by  discharging  officers,  clerks,  etc. 

The  pet  economical  measure  of  Mr.  McCul- 
loch  is  to  redeem  and  fund  the  Treasury  notes 
and  unfunded  debt,  amounting  to  $490,634,000, 
which  would  increase  the  annual  amount  of 
interest,  to  be  shoveled  out  in  gold,  $29,436,585. 
He,  for  the  sake  of  economy,  is  endeavoring,  to 
his  utmost,  to  get  the  entire  debt  into  gold- 
bearing  bonds,  which  will  enable  the  Treas- 
ury agents  to  shovel  out  $150,000,000  in  gold 
per  annum,  to  men  who  never  paid  a  dollar 
of  gold  into  the  Treasury.  This  is  the  man 
whom  the  capitalists  delight  to  flatter  and 
honor  ;  this  is  the  man  who  writes  eloquently, 
and  lectures  Congress  on  their  duty,  to  use  the 
strictest  economy,  and  tells  us  about  the  demor- 
alization and  idleness  of  the  people  and  of  the 
"  exorbitant "  prices  of  agricultural  produce  and 
labor  and  of  the  "  Redundant,"  "  Plethoric,"  "  In- 
flated," "  Degraded  "  currency.  This  is  the  man 
who  is  recommending  the  issue  of  long  bonds 
at  extravagant,  ruinous  rates  of  interest ;  this 
is  the  economist  that,  for  political  preferences 
and  purposes,  allows  the  revenue  to  be  de. 
frauded  of  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars  annu- 
ally by  notorious  scoundrels  who  are  permitted 
to  escape  conviction  and  punishment,  although 
their  perjury  and  crime  are  well  known  to 


the  public.  And  yet  we  hear  and  see  this  man 
puffed  by  Republican  Senators  and  newspapers, 
although  he  confessedly  is  working  to  thwart 
the  great  Congressional  Act  of  Reconstruction. 
It  is  truly  surprising  to  see  Congressmen  of 
good  standing  in  the  Republican  party  endors- 
ing the  Secretary,  when  his  statistical  reports 
prove  that  he  is  perfectly  incapable  of  making 
an  estimate  of  the  expenses  of  the  Government 
that  is  reliable,  and  those  which  he  has  sub- 
mitted have  proved  to  vary  from  the  actual  re- 
ceipts and  expenses,  from  one  to  over  two  hun- 
dred millions  of  dollars.  If  the  Republican 
party  in  Congress  consent  to  be  ruled  or  ad- 
vised by  such  a  man  as  McCulloch,  they  will 
be  certain  to  be  defeated  at  the  coming  elec- 
tion, even  with  the  great  name  of  General 
Grant  as  standard  bearer. 

Statesmen  will  soon  learn  that  the  financial 
question  is  the  great  question  of  the  day,  and 
must  be  met  and  decided  in  the  interest  of  the 
industrial  and  producing  classes  of  society. 

THE  REPORT  OF  MR.  WELLS,  SPECIAL 
COMMISSIONER  OF  THE  REVENUE- 
MR.  SPINNER'S  LETTER,  PORTRAIT, 
Etc. 

It  is  one  of  the  anomalies  of  the  times  to 
have  the  officials  of  the  Treasury  Department 
endeavoring  to  bolster  up  the  policy  of  their 
chief.  Every  calculation  and  prediction  that 
he  or  they  have  made  in  regard  to  the  finances 
have  failed.  It  is  amusing  to  watch  them 
attempting  to  evade  the  splendid  results  from 
the  use  of  the  Treasury  notes.  Mr.  Wells  is 
anxious  to  prove  that  the  Nation  is  solvent 
and  able  to  raise  sufficient  revenue  to  liquidate 
all  claims,  pay  interest,  etc.  ;  is  obliged,  for 
the  use  of  his  argument,  to  acknowledge  that 
the  country  is  in  a  most  prosperous  condition, 
which  is  contradictory  to  the  message  and  re- 
port of  his  chiefs ;  and  to  his  own  previous 
predictions.    He  says : 

It  therefore  appears  that  during  the  years 
from  1861  to  1866  labor  and  commodities  were 
continually  withdrawn  from  the  productive 
employments  of  peace  to  the  destructive  occu- 
pations of  war,  and  that  the  measure  of  this 
unproductive  diversion  was  in  excess  of  seven 
hundred  and  twelve  millions  per  annum  ;  and 


28 


OUR  NATIONAL  FINANCES. 


yet  during  tlie  continuance  of  all  this  drain 
the  Northern  and  Pacific  States  did  not  cease 
to  make  a  real  proorress  in  the  creation  of  sub- 
stantial wealth.  Thus,  the  ajjcrregate  of  the 
Northern  crops,  measured  in  bulk  or  quantity, 
and  not  in  money,  did  not  decrease,  but  in- 
creased ;  the  area  of  territory  placed  under 
cultivation  was  continually  enlarged ;  rail- 
roads continued  to  be  built,  mines  to  be  opened, 
and  mills,  stores  and  dwellings  to  be  erected. 

How  much  more  noble  this  gentleman  would 
appear  if  he  had  freely  stated  the  simple  facts 
in  the  case,  and  confessed  that  he  had  been 
happily  disappointed  ;  that  the  use  of  the 
Treasury  money  was  as  beneficial  as  the  use 
of  gold  ;  and  that,  instead  of  diminishing  pro- 
duction and  trade,  as  he  had  supposed  it  would, 
that  it  has  been  the  medium  and  agency  that 
has  enabled  the  people  to  accomplish  vast  and 
beneficial  results.  But  instead  of  this,  he  en- 
deavors to  palliate  his  arguments.  He  informs 
us : 

In  his  previous  report  the  commissioner,  as 
the  result  of  a  carefully-instituted  and  con- 
ducted inquiry,  was  led  to  refer  the  abnormal 
and  unsatisfactory  condition  of  the  producing 
interests  of  the  country  mainly  to  three  agen- 
cies, viz. :  Scarcity  of  skilled  labor,  an  irre- 
deemable paper  currency  and  unequal  and 
heavy  taxation — the  general  resultant  of  all 
which  was  seen  in  an  unnatural  condition  of 
high  prices  for  both  labor  and  commodities. 
Subsequent  and  continued  investigations  have 
aflforded  no  ground  for  questioning  the  accu- 
racy of  these  conclusions ;  but  at  the  same 
time  it  must  be  apparent  to  even  the  most 
casual  observer  that  things  have  not  remained 
stationary. 

It  is  apparent  that  this  statement  does  not 
agree  with  the  conclusions  that  he  arrives  at — 
that  the  country  is  more  prosperous  than  any 
other. 

After  giving  figures  and  statistics  that  show 
that  vast  additions  of  wealth  have  accumulated, 
he  says : 

Omitting  any  reference  in  detail  to  the 
marked  increase  in  the  number  of  houses 
erected  during  the  past  year — estimated  by 
good  authorities  to  be  greater  than  in  any  for- 
mer year  of  our  national  existence — or  to  the 
increase  in  the  manufacture  of  agricultural 
implements,  salt,  paper,  edge  tools,  cutlery, 
chains,  and  a  variety  of  other  articles,  we  will 
cite  but  one  other  illustration,  drawn  from  do- 
mestic sources,  of  the  financial  strength  of  the 
country.  As  has  been  already  shown,  the  na- 
tional expenditures,  exclusive  of  appropriations 
for  the  redemption  of  the  public  debt  and  for 
interest,  attained  during  the  five  years  from 


j  1861  to  18GG  the  extraordinary  average  of  over 
j  seven  hundred  and  twelve  millions  of  dollars 
I  per  annum  ;  to  which  must  also  be  added  the 

great  increase  during  the  same  period  of  State 

and  local  expenditures. 

This,  we  should  suppose,  would  bo  satisfac- 
tory ;  but  the  gentleman  stultifies  his  own 
statements,  as  follows : 

The  true  theory  of  legislation  under  the 
present  condition  of  affairs  would  seem  to  be, 
not  to  suspend  or  delay  recovery  —  painful 
though  it  may  be — from  abnormal  prices  and 
over-production  by  further  inflation,  but  that 
relief  should  be  afforded  to  the  greatest  extent 
possible  by  the  removal  of  taxes  which  impede 
production — taxes  which,  when  first  imposed, 
were  drawn  from  profits,  and  were,  therefore, 
to  a  certain  extent,  justified,  but  which,  with 
the  present  reduction  of  values,  fall  mainly 
upon  capital. 

How  puerile  is  this  double  dealing  to  sustain 
a  false  and  ruinous  theory. 

He  first  proves  that  the  country  is  in  a  high- 
ly prosperous  condition,  and  then  he  talks  of 
relief  through  the  paivful  process  of  contrac- 
tion. 

It  will  be  observed  that  he  charges  inflation 
with  over  production,  which  is  a  curse,  and 
recommends  reduction  of  taxation,  which  im- 
pedes productions,  which  are  a  blessing.  "We 
trust  the  time  has  about  arrived  when  the  pub- 
lic servants  and  gentlemen  who  have  any  re- 
gard for  reputation  will  be  constrained  to  write 
and  speak  more  in  accordance  with  facts  and 
experience. 

We  give  below  a  letter  from  Mr.  Spinner, 
whom  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  employs 
to  have  his  portrait  put  on  the  "  fifty  cents  " 
currency  and  his  name  printed  on  the  Treasury 
notes.  This  Government  clerk  writes  as  fol- 
lows, and  affords  a  good  sample  of  the  inso- 
lence of  the  persons  employed  by  the  Govern- 
ment : 

Washington,  Nov.  9, 1867. 
Hon.  E.  G.  Spaulding,  Buffalo,  N.  Y. : 

My  Dear  Sir  :  Your  note  of  the  6th  inst. 
has  been  received.    If  some  one  who  believes 
in  high-toned  swindling  will  write  in  favor  of 
open  repudiation,  I  will  agree  to  give  the  sub- 
ject the  consideration  of  a  careful  reading,  but 
I  "l  have  not  the  patience  to  read  anything  advo- 
j  eating  the  sneaking  expedient  of  paying  the 
I  national  debt  in  depreciated  currency. 
I     The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  is  sound  on 
j  the  subject ;  and  his  forthcoming  report  will 
I  address  an  argument  to  the  Congress  and  th© 


IMMEDIATE  RESUMPTION— THE  COTTON  TAX,  Etc. 


29 


country  that  I  am  sure  will  please  you  and 
those  who  are  neither  knaves  nor  fools. 

The  finance  question  is  to  become  the  lead- 
in  gf  one  in  the  organization  of  parties,  and  I 
had  hoped  that  such  men  as  Butler  and  Stevens 
would  have  remained  with  the  great  body  of 
their  friends.  Having  an  abiding  faith  in  the 
honesty  of  the  people,  I  believe  the  question 
will  be  settled  honestly,  and  that  honest  Amer- 
icans will  be  spared  the  shame  of  having  their 
nation  stigmatized  as  a  band  of  cheats  and 
swindlers. 

Very  truly,  your  friend, 

F.  E.  Spinner. 

Mr.  McCuUoch  reports  that  the  prices  of  all 
descriptions  of  agricultural  produce  is  bring- 
ing "  exorbitant  prices  "  excej)ting  wool,  and  as 
he  is  in  favor  of  Congress  using  the  "  strictest 
economy "  in  Government  expenditures,  we 
recommend  him  to  send  a  thousand  of  his  able- 
bodied  clerks  into  the  country  to  engage  in  the 
healthy  and  highly  remunerative  business  of 
farming,  and  if  those  remaining  cannot  do  the 
business  of  the  oflBce,  to  discharge  them  and 
let  out  the  contract.  Almost  any  New  York 
merchant  can  do  more  work  with  two  hun- 
dred men  and  the  same  number  of  girls,  and 
there  are  any  number  of  better-looking  men  than 
Spinner  that  will  hire  or  loan  their  face  and 
signature  to  the  Government  for  a  price  that 
will  make  a  considerable  saving. 

It  is  rather  curious  that  McCulloch  has  his 
portrait  on  the  one  dollar  hills,  Spinner  on  the 
fifty  cent  currency,  and  Lincoln  on  the  twenty- 
five  cent  currency, 

IMMEDIATE  RESUMPTION— THE  COT- 
TON TAX—"  THE  NIGGERS  "—LONG 
BONDS— STEVENS  AND  BUTLER, 
Etc. 

There  is  much  speculation  and  a  great  diver- 
sity of  opinion  expressed  of  what  effects  would 
be  produced  by  the  immediate  resumption  of 
specie  payments.  The  writers  have  not  taken 
into  consideration  the  vast  difference  it  would 
make  in  case  we  should  (supposing  it  is  possi- 
ble) "  resume  now  "  or  wait  eighteen  or  twenty- 
four  months  and  force  contraction,  as  is  pro- 
posed by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 

The  Americans,  being  a  civilized  people, 
require  or  use  but  a  very  small  amount  of 
gold  ;  they  prefer  Government  paper  money, 
and  would  make  but  small  drafts  upon  the 


Treasury  in  case  of  resumption.  But  our 
foreign  merchants,  and  the  foreign  speculators 
in  our  Government  and  State  Bonds,  would 
cash  them,  and  it  is  more  than  probable  that 
they  would  compel  a  fresh  suspension,  which 
would  derange  the  finances  and  prove  disas- 
trous. But  it  is  not  our  object  to  speculate 
upon  what  this  effect  would  be,  but  to  state 
what  effect  would  be  produced  by  resumption, 
supposing  it  to  be  possible,  and  providing  it 
could  be  maintained. 

Bona  fide\\ol^Qvs  of  Government  Bonds,  who 
purchased  them  for  permanent  investment, 
would  not  be  benefitted  by  resumption.  But 
speculators,  and  especially  those  who  are  oper- 
ating with  European  Bankers,  would  be  im- 
mensely benefitted ;  and  all  merchants  and 
bankers  who  owe  debts'outside  of  the  United 
States  would  in  effect  have  them  reduced  40 
per  cent. 

Real  estate,  building  materials,  and  labor 
(excepting  farm  labor),  would  not  be  reduced, 
as  is  generally  believed,  but  would  be  increased 
in  price,  SX.S  there  would  be  a  larger  amount 
of  money  in  circulation  than  there  is  at  present. 
Add  one  hundred  or  two  hundred  millions  of 
dollars  in  gold  to  the  circulating  medium,  and 
it  would  produce  greater  excitement  and  spec- 
ulation than  the  same  amount  of  greenbacks. 

But  cotton,  tobacco,  grain,  lard,  cheese,  and 
all  articles  of  general  export  would  be  reduced 
to  very  nearly  the  amount  of  the  premium  on 
gold,  as  the  foreign  market  governs  the  price 
of  produce  that  is  extensively  exported  ;  but 
as  there  would  be  a  larger  amount  of  money 
in  circulation,  there  would  be  an  increased 
consumption  of  commodities,  and  would 
slightly  affect  the  European  and  home  markets. 

The  "  niggers  "  in  the  Georgia  Convention 
reason  more  closely  than  many  of  our  public 
men.  Recently,  when  the  cotton  tax  was  up 
for  discussion,  they  refused  to  vote  for  a  reso- 
lution to  rescind  the  tax,  declaring  if  the  two- 
cent  tax  was  taken  off  that  they  would  not  be 
benefitted  in  the  least,  as  cotton  would  sell  for 
two  cents  per  pound  less,  and  they  were  in 
favor  of  making  the  foreign  consumers  pay  a 
portion  of  the  expenses  of  the  Government. 
This  was  an  excellent  beginning  for  "  nigger  " 
legislation,  and  encourages  us  to  believe  that 


80 


OUR  NATIONAL  FINANCES. 


when  they  or  their  representatives  take  their 
places  in  Congress,  they  will  discover — if  they 
have  not  already  done  so — that  there  is  not  a 
"  redundant  currency." 

The  question  for  the  people  and  Congress  to 
reflect  upon — will  it  be  judicious,  providing 
the  Government  is  able  to  resume  immediately, 
or  soon^  to  decrease  the  price  of  cotton,  tobacco, 
grain,  pork,  cheese,  etc.,  one-third  of  its  value 
in  currency?  Especially  as  it  would,  un- 
doubtedly reduce  the  amount  of  exports.  The 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  thinks  our  planters 
and  farmers  will  work  more  cheerfully  and 
sell  more  readily  when  prices  are  reduced 
40  per  cent,  than  they  will  at  the  present 
"exorbitant  prices."  He  possibly  is  very 
learned  in  political  economy,  but  he  is  certainly 
Tery  deficient  in  knowledge  respecting  the 
present  status  of  human  nature.  This  is  very 
much  like  the  character  of  the  argument, 
which  affirms  that  real  estate^  building  mate- 
rials, etc.,  would  decline  in  price  if  one  hundred 
or  two  hundred  millions  of  gold  was  added  to 
the  volume  of  the  circulating  medium. 

The  reason  why  the  capitalists  wish  the 
bills  of  credit  destroyed  is  to  increase  the 
scarcity  of  money  and  the  stringency  of  the 
money  market.  The  Secretary  politely  calls 
it,  "  to  increase  the  activity  of  money." 

Our  capitalists  (excepting  those  engaged  in 
foreign  trade  and  speculation,  and  those  who 
wish  to  pay  their  foreign  drafts  and  save  forty 
per  cent,  of  the  amount,  and  realize  the  gold  on 
their  bonds)  desire  to  make  money  scarce  and 
dear.  They  require  the  Treasury  notes  to  be 
retired,  to  enable  them  to  control  the  real- 
estate  and  produce  markets,  and  give  them 
the  power  to  dictate  terms  to  the  Government 
as  formerly.  Nothing  short  of  this  will  satisfy 
the  money  kings  and  merchant  princes  of 
New  York.  The  United  States  currency  has 
partially  dethroned  them.  They  have  as 
ardent  love  for  temporal  power  as  has  the 
Pope  and  Papacy.  They  are  full  of  lamenta- 
tions in  prosperous  times,  and  incessantly 
predict  calamity,  which  is  their  millennium. 

At  present  they  are  raving  like  maniacs  at 
Stevens  and  Butler,  because  they  propose 
to  pay  the  5-20  bonds  in  the  same  description 
of  money  that  was  received  by  the  Government 
and  contractors  for  them. 


The  millionaires  and  their  servitors  were  as 
quiet  as  doves  when  the  Government  paid  off 
the  soldiers,  who,  at  the  commencement  of  the 
Rebellion  and  before  the  suspension  of  specie 
payments,  enlisted  for  the  war  and  have  fol- 
lowed *'  the  dear  old  flag  "  through  the  frosts 
of  several  Winters  and  the  malaria  and  fevers 
of  Southern  Summers,  through  the  smoke,  fire 
and  blood  of  more  than  one  hundred  dreadful 
battles.  They  contracted  for  twelve  dollars 
per  month  to  conquer  or  die.  They  tramped 
the  weary  and  fearful  rounds  on  the  lonely  and 
distant  pickets,  amid  the  dark,  rain,  and  sleet* 
through  the  thick  morasses  and  over  the  moun- 
tains of  every  Southern  State,  storming  in- 
trenchments  and  braving  death  in  every  form, 
to  save  the  Union.  These  men  were  the  sal- 
vation of  our  priceless  liberty  and  beloved 
country.  They  had  no  powerful  friends,  when 
they  were  honorably  discharged,  to  demand 
gold  for  them. 

But  the  great  contractors,  who  furnished 
shoddy  clothing  and  paper-soled  shoes  for  our 
braves  to  fight  in,  and  the  millionaires  who 
rolled  in  luxuries  and  ease  during  those  fearful 
times,  and  the  foreign  merchants  and  specula- 
tors that  filled  the  country  with  costly  wines, 
brandies,  cigars,  silks,  satins,  etc.,  etc.,  at  ex- 
travagant prices,  and  received  their  pay  and 
enormous  profits  in  Five-twenty  bonds  at 
thirty-five,  forty,  fifty  and  sixty  cents  on  the 
dollar,  and  who  have  been  allowed  to  rob  the 
United  States  Treasury  of  over  $300,000,000  of 
gold  received  as  interest,  which  gold,  if  it  had 
been  retained  in  the  vaults  of  the  Treasury,  as 
justice,  economy  and  sound  policy  dictated, 
would  have  enabled  the  Government  to  circu- 
late $1,000,000,000  of  Treasury  notes  and  kept 
them  at  par  with  specie  and  sold  its  bonds, 
|1,500,000,000  in  amount,  at  three  per  cent. 
Facts  and  common  sense  teach  this,  and  all  the 
sophisms  and  blatant  jabber  of  the  contraction- 
ists  cannot  disprove  it. 

The  capitalists  at  first  dictated  a  13  per  cent, 
loan,  then  7.30,  then  six  per  cent,  bonds,  inter- 
est payable  in  gold,  and  now  they  have  the 
impudence  to  ask  Congress  to  pass  an  act  that 
their  bonds  shall  be  paid  in  gold,  even  if  it 
commands  100  per  cent,  premium.  And  when 
the  patriotic  Butler  questions  the  propriety,  he 
is  posted  as  "  a  knave  "  or  "  a  fool."   And  when 


IMMEDIATE  RESUMPTION— THE  COTTON  TAX,  Etc. 


31 


the  Old  Man  Eloquent,  one  of  the  best  and 
purest  men  that  ever  stood  up  in  Parliament  or 
deliberative  assembly  to  defend  "  the  right," 
when  glorious,  incorruptible  Old  Thad.  Ste- 
vens stands  with  one  foot  in  Congress  and  one 
on  his  grave,  to  protect  the  public  and  protest 
against  such  gross  injustice,  the  footmen  and 
servants  of  the  millionaires  brand  this  great 
and  good  man  "  a  scoundrel "  or  "  an  imbecile." 
The  thunders  of  excommunication  from  the 
"Vatican  scarcely  exceed  the  wrath  of  these  men. 

The  capitalists  having  "  fixed  "  the  leaders 
of  both  the  political  parties  in  New  York  on 
the  question  of  the  5-20  bonds,  are  now  work- 
ing together  to  obtain  an  act  of  Congress  to 
authorize  a  forty  or  fifty  year  six  per  cent, 
loan.  These  men  are  too  wise  not  to  sec  that 
the  immense  and  increasing  product  of  gold 
and  silver  is  rapidly  reducing  its  purchasing 
power.  They  are  fully  aware  that  the  money 
markets  of  the  Old  World  are  already  glutted 
with  the  precious  metals,  and  the  value  or  in- 
terest is  decreasing,  and  this  is  the  reason  why 
they  are  so  extremely  anxious  for  an  issue  of 
long  bonds  now. 

If  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  author- 
ize an  issue  of  long  bonds  bearing  a  greater 
rate  of  interest  than  three  per  cent.,  they  will 
be  accessory  to  a  stupendous  fraud  and  will  de. 
serve  and  receive  the  condemnation  of  two 
generations  of  people.  Nothing  could  be  so 
abominable,  stupid  and  wicked  as  to  authorize 
the  negotiation  of  $2,000,000,000  or  $2,500,000,- 
000  in  five  or  six  per  cent,  bonds.  Under  the 
circumstances,  it  would  be  complete  political 
suicide  to  the  party  in  power  and  plant  the 
seeds  that  would  bring  forth  agitation,  repudi- 
ation and  anarchy. 

Insure  the  great  capitalists  of  New  Yor^ 
that  their  Government  bonds  are  all  safe  and 
drawing  six  per  cent,  interest,  and  they  will  be 
as  cool  and  placid  as  a  Summer  lake,  and  dur- 
ing the  fierce  political  contest  that  is  approach- 
ing these  aristocratic  Republicans  and  Demo- 
crats will  make  liberal  donations  to  their  re- 
spective parties  and  laugh  as  the  strife  goes  on, 
and  swear  that  the^e  fellows  are  only  fighting 
for  office,  and  suppose  that  the  people  are  as 
destitute  of  principle  as  they  are  themselves, 
who  do  not  care  a  rush  whether  the  "  niggers  " 


vote  or  not.  Their  only  concern  is  that  the 
"  Jionor  "  of  the  Government  is  not  tarnished 
by  refusing  to  pay  gold  for  bonds  purchased 
by  them  at  thirty-five  to  sixty  per  cent,  dis- 
count. Gold  is  their  God,  general  prosperity 
their  abomination,  and  universal  suffrage  is 
demoralization,  and  freedom  a  myth. 

Congress  should  issue  $1,500,000,000  in  forty 
or  fifty  year  three  per  cent,  bonds  and  direct 
the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to  purchase  with 
Treasury  notes  $200,000,000  or  $300,000,000  per 
year  of  interest-bearing  Government  securities 
and  cancel  them,  and  make  it  obligatory  on 
the  National  Banks  to  exchange  their  six  per 
cent,  bonds  for  the  three  per  cents,  or  close 
their  institutions,  and  allow  the  holders  of  the 
Five-twenty  bonds  to  exchange  them  for  three 
per  cents  or  pay  them  in  currency  or  gold  when 
due,  as  best  suited  the  interests  of  the  Gov. 
ernment.  And  if  Congress  would  authorize 
the  Secretary,  under  proper  regulations,  to 
loan  the  Southern  States  during  the  next  two 
years  $200,000,000,  at  three  per  cent.,  to 
make  new  levees,  etc.,  our  financial  difficulties 
would  be  dissolved. 

There  is  complaint  of  short  crops  and  pov- 
erty in  the  South,  but  considering  the  conquest 
and  devastation  of  that  country  by  the  North- 
ern army,  the  destruction  of  property  by  floods 
and  drouth,  and  the  army  worm,  and  especial- 
ly when  we  reflect  upon  the  limited  amount  of 
circulating  medium,  money,  and  the  ruinous 
rates  paid  for  it,  it  is  indeed  wonderful  that 
they  have  been  ab'.e  to  produce  such  a  vast 
amount  of  produce  as  they  have.  And  it  re- 
flects great  honor  upon  the  white  and  colored 
population,  and  proves  beyond  question,  with 
the  exception  of  a  few  noisy  men,  the  people 
have  been  remarkably  industrious,  and  that  it 
only  requires  a  full  and  free  circulation  of 
money  at  cheap  rates  to  make  the  whole  South 
more  productive  and  prosperous  than  ever. 

The  great  panacea  for  confusion  and  anarchy 
and  their  attendant  difficulties  is  cheap  money. 
Cheap  money  would  double  and  treble  the 
amount  of  Southern  produce,  and  double  and 
treble  the  demand  for  every  description  of  man- 
ufactured goods,  Ftimulating  every  branch  of 
industry  in  the  whole  country  and  immensely 
benefitting  the  whole  pe:?ple  and  the  Govern- 


32 


OUR  NATIONAL  FINANCES. 


ment.  A  few  thousand  drones,  who  live  on 
the  interest  of  money,  would  make  a  great 
clamor,  but  this  would  soon  be  drowned  by  the 
music  and  hum  of  millions  of  people  engaged 
in  active  industry  resounding  through  all  the 
arteries  of  trade  and  commerce. 

THE  CHAMBER  OF  COMMERCE  REPORT 
—THE  DECLINE  OF  SHIP  BUILDING, 
Etc, 

The  New  York  Chamber  of  Commerce  have 
published  a  report  on  the  National  Finances, 
which  has  been  sent  to  Congress.  It  recom- 
mends resumption  of  specie  payments,  con- 
traction of  the  currency,  economy ;  and  speaks 
touchingly  of  the  extravagance  and  demoral- 
ization of  the  people,  the  decline  of  ship  build- 
ing, etc. 

We  look  in  vain  in  this  report  for  any 
recommendation  to  reduce  the  rate  of  interest, 
or  any  scheme  to  open  new  fields  of  enterprise 
to  increase  the  production  of  cotton  and  the 
great  staples  of  commerce.  They  have  no 
word  of  condemnation  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  who,  previous  to  the  close  of  the  Re- 
bellion, had  at  his  disposal  several  hundred 
millions  of  dollars'  worth  of  Southern  produc- 
tions, taken  at  Savannah,  Mobile,  and  in  other 
Southern  cities,  who,  when  the  price  of  cotton 
was  from  one  to  two  dollars  per  pound  in  Liver- 
pool, shipped  it  to  New  York,  where  it  was 
almost  consumed  by  storage,  commission,  and 
by  fire,  instead  of  forwarding  it  to  Europe  and 
drawing  the  gold  for  it,  as  the  interest  of  the 
Treasury  demanded.  Perhaps  the  committee 
did  not  broach  this  question,  for  fear  that  some 
of  the  very  respectable  Chamber  of  Commerce 
men  owned  the  ships  and  stores  and  storage 
houses  which  eat  up  the  most  of  this  cotton, 
tobacco,  rice,  turpentine,  etc. 

They  endorse  the  Secretary,  who  advises 
Congress  to  place  the  public  debt  into  long  six 
per  cent,  bonds,  fastening  twenty-five  hundred 
millions  of  millstones  around  the  necks  of  the 
people  and  casting  them  into  the  sea  of  finan- 
cial difficulties,  disabilities  and  liabilities  from 
which  they  could  not  be  rescued,  except  by 
revolution,  or  by  its  twiu  brother — repudi- 
ation. 


If  they  can  accomplish  this  great  economi- 
cal measure  it  would  give  the  bondholders 
about  nine  hundred  millions  profit  on  their 
bonds;  and  in  the  present  and  prospective 
plethoric  state  of  the  European  money  market, 
if  the  financial  question  can  be  kept  out  of 
politics  and  both  parties  whipped  in  to  acqui- 
escence by  the  capitalists,  these  six  per  cent, 
long  bonds  would  within  twelve  or  eighteen 
months  be  selling  at  thirty  per  cent,  premium, 
adding  say  seven  hundred  and  fifty  millions  of 
dollars  to  their  value.  This  is  the  reason  why 
we  see  bo  much  straining  at  gnats  and  swal- 
lowing camels  "  in  these  last  days. 

To  one  who  is  acquainted  with  the  habits  of 
the  great  majority  of  the  gentlemen  who  com- 
pose that  solemn  conclave,  the  Chamber  of 
Commerce,  the  following  extract  from  the 
report  is  exceedingly  comical : 

It  is  at  the  same  time  true  that  enterprise 
within  our  own  borders  is  kept  in  check  by  the 
very  high  cost  of  labor  and  materials  that  en- 
ter into  the  construction  of  storehouse  and 
dwelling,  and  it  is  to  be  feared  that  the  char- 
acter and  security  of  both  will  be  slighted 
because  of  the  enhanced  expenses  and  the 
danger  of  depreciation.  It  would  not  be  diffi- 
cult to  trace  much  of  the  demoralization  that 
exists  throughout  our  community  to  habits  of 
idleness  and  extravagance,  w^hicli  have  been 
engendered  by  a  too  free  circulation  of  paper 
money. 

The  demoralization,  "  idleness  and  extrav- 
agance which  have  been  engendered  by  the 
too  free  circulation  of  paper  money,"  this,  to 
one  who  understands  that  these  men  reside 
in  splendid  and  luxurious  palaces,  and  sport 
magnificent  equipages,  dazzle  with  diamonds, 
purchase  $500  kerchiefs  and  $5,000  shawls, 
give  costly  feasts,  own  opera  boxes,  etc. ;  and 
that  these  merchant  princes  have  agents 
searching  the  world  for  curiosities  of  art  and 
novelties  in  fashion  to  import  for  the  gratifi- 
cation of  these  exquisite  and  select  set,  who 
live  deliciously  every  day,  clothed  in  stuffs 
that  rival  "  purple  and  fine  linen,"  which  is 
too  cheap  and  common  for  the  use  of  the 
Pharisees  and  Sadducees  of  this  age.  To  hear 
these  men  mouth  words  about  extravagance 
and  "  inflation "  is  truly  an  episode  of  rare 
"  redundancy." 

In  the  extract  we  have  quoted,  they  deplore 


THE  CHAMBER  OF  COMMERCE  REPORT,  Etc. 


33 


the  high  price  of  labor,  etc.  In  the  one  we 
give  below,  they  show  a  tender  regard  for  the 
working  classes.    Hear  them  : 

It  is  the  opinion  of  the  committee  that  the 
return  to  specie  payments  will  affect  the  in- 
terests of  the  great  mass  of  the  people  ;  the 
mechanics,  the  agriculturists,  the  laborers, 
and  the  poor  of  every  class,  more  favorably 
than  those  of  the  rich. 

But  what  appals  them  most  is  the  knowledge 
that  there  is  but  one  corrective.  Hear  them 
again : 

There  is  but  one  corrective,  and  that  a 
speedy  return  to  a  specie  basis.  The  reasons  for 
this  are  believed  to  be  sufficiently  manifest  from 
a  brief  contemplation  of  the  evil  consequences 
involved  in  the  suspension  of  specie  payments. 
These  were  forseen  when  the  first  bill  making 
Treasury  notes  a  "  legal  tender "  was  before 
Congress  ;  and  the  strongest  argument  then 
urged  against  their  issue  in  this  form,  was  the 
danger  in  view  of  which  those  who  advanced 
their  capital  to  the  country  in  time  of  its  ut- 
most need,  now  stand  appalled — the  danger  of 
increased  issues.  There  is  but  one  j  ustification, 
then,  and  it  was  found  not  in  the  letter  of  the 
Constitution,  but  in  the  necessities  of  the  war. 

In  another  paragraph  they  inform  the  pub- 
lic— which  is  very  kind  in  the  committee — that 
the  country  is  just  escaping  from  an  "  abyss." 

To  this  policy  Congress  has  hitherto  ren- 
dered loyal  support,  and  to  this,  it  is  to  be 
hoped,  despite  all  efforts  to  the  contrary,  it 
will  continue  to  be  true.  The  malign  influ- 
ence that  is  relied  on  to  plunge  the  country 
once  more  into  the  abyss  from  which  it  is  just 
escaping,  is  said  to  be  most  strongly  developed 
in  the  West. 

We  had  supposed  that  the  Rebellion  was  an 
"  abyss,"  and  that  the  Government  money  was 
the  grand  agent  that  prevented  the  catastro- 
phe of  the  Union  being  destroyed.  When  this 
committee  report  that  improvements  and 
building,  etc.,  has  been  kept  in  check  by  the 
issue  of  greenbacks,  they  sanction  a  statement 
that  every  intelligent  person  in  the  country 
knows  to  be  positively  untrue. 

The  great  public  have  never  before  been  so 
constantly  and  profitably  employed  as  they 
have  since  the  issue  of  the  Treasury  notes ;  the 
whole  land  is  filled  with  monuments  of  indus- 
try that  attest  this  incontrovertible  truth. 

The  contraction  of  the  currency,  last  Sum- 
mer and  Fall,  and  threats  of  resuming  specie 
payments,  gave  a  severe  check  to  enterprise, 
5 


trade  and  manufactures,  and  business  is  par- 
tially paralyzed.  It  is  a  disgrace  that  the 
metropolis  of  the  country  contain  a  large  body 
of  influential  and  respectable  men,  claiming 
to  be  the  representatives  of  trade  and  com- 
merce, who  misrepresent  the  industrial  classes 
and  the  real  situation  of  affairs. 

We  cannot  exhibit  the  inconsistencies  of 
these  men  more  graphically  than  by  quoting 
a  few  more  of  their  contradictory  statements. 
The  report  says : 

Your  committee  feel  that  this  Chamber 
should  protest  against  any  further  debasement 
of  our  National  currency  ;  against  the  initia- 
tion of  the  novel  mode  suggested  of  paying 
the  public  debt  ;  and  lift  up  its  voice  in  lavor 
of  a  speedy  resumption  of  specie  payments, 
which  will  consign  to  oblivion  all  adverse  and 
unworthy  financial  expedients  

It  is  wiser  and  more  manly  to  accept  with- 
out unnecessary  delay  the  remedy  for  our 
financial  ills  which  time  and  experience  have 
proved  efficacious,  rather  than  to  live  in  per- 
petual fear  of  the  temporary  suffering  it  will 
cause.  Contraction  doubtless  means  a  reduc- 
tion of  prices,  and  a  curtailment  of  moneyed 
facilities,  but  it  points  to  one  medium  of  pay- 
ment, and  resumption  will  put  at  rest  many 
disquieting  suggestions  in  regard  to  the  public 
debt. 

It  will  be  observed  that  they  are  obliged  to 
acknowledge  "  tJiat  contraction  doubtless  means 
contraction  of  prices  ;  "  and  then  say  : 

The  farmer  will  get  more  for  what  he  sells, 
and  pay  more  for  what  he  buys  ;  the  old  debt 
may  be  canceled  with  ease,  to  be  replaced  with 
another  of  enlarged  dimensions. 

The  greatest  simpleton  in  the  country  can- 
not fail  to  detect  the  false  statements  and  the 
contradictions  contained  in  these  sentences. 
To  strip  them  of  their  verbiage,  they  mean  just 
this  :  Or  the  result  of  their  theory  if  adopted, 
would  be  to  increase  the  gold  value  of  the 
United  States  Bonds,  mostly  held  by  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  and  their 
friends,  eight  or  nine  hundred  millions  of  dol- 
lars, and  to  decrease  the  price  of  the  property 
held  by  traders,  manufacturers,  planters, 
farmers,  etc.,  eight  or  nine  thousand  millions  of 
dollars,  a  sum  sufficient  to  pay  the  whole 
public  debt  if  it  was  trebled. 

The  price  of  all  descriptions  of  American 
produce  that  has  a  foreign  demand  is  made  by 
the  price  it  commands  in  the  foreign  market ; 


34 


OUR  NATIONAL  FINANCES. 


consequently  tlie  reduction  would  be  equal  to  tlie 
premium  on  gold,  or  forty  per  cent.  The  planters 
and  farmers  can  calculate  with,  accuracy  what 
resumption  of  specie  payments  would  cost  them. 

The  most  plausible  argument  that  the  con- 
tractionists  have  been  able  to  advance,  and 
which  is  referred  to  in  the  report  under  con- 
sideration, is,  that  "  the  high  price  of  mfrterials 
and  labor  has  ruined  the  business  of  ship- 
building," and,  as  they  appeal  to  national 
pride,  they  carry  public  sentiment  with  them 
to  a  considerable  extent.  It  cannot  be  ex- 
pected, when  the  Government  is  constantly 
selling  steamers  and  sailing  vessels  at  auction 
at  one  half  of  their  cost,  that  the  business  of 
building  of  ships  would  be  prosperous.  But 
we  will  concede,  for  the  sake  of  the  argument, 
that  "  the  high  prices  for  labor,  etc.,  has  ruined 
the  business  of  building  ships."  Mr.  Blaine, 
the  gentleman  from  Maine,  who  is  a  contrac- 
tionist,  and  the  Committee  of  the  Chamber  of 
Commerce,  declare  that  the  wages  demanded 
by  our  ship  carpenters  are  so  high  that  we 
cannot  compete  with  the  workmen  of  England, 
They  talk  of  the  glory  of  our  country  depart- 
ing, etc.  We  declare,  and  we  hope  and  trust, 
that  there  will  never  be  another  ship  built  in 
the  United  States,  if  the  builders  are  compelled 
to  work  for  the  miserable  wages  paid  to  work- 
men in  Europe. 

The  naval  architects,  mechanics  and  ma- 
chinists of  our  country  can  beat  the  world  in 
modelling  and  constructing  ships,  from  an 
iron-clad  down  to  a  scull  boat.  If  the  Chamber 
of  Commerce  men  want  really  fine  ships,  and 
are  willing  to  purchase  them  at  rates  that 
will  fully  reward  the  builders,  they  can  have 
them  made  to  order  or  do  without.  The  ships 
and  boats  for  inland  navigation,  and  "  steam 
palaces,"  will,  of  course,  be  built,  if  the  capi- 
talists pay  for  them,  and  they  will,  for  of  these 
we  have  the  monopoly.  It  is  a  happy  circum- 
stance if  the  Government  continues  the  use  of 
Treasury  notes  ;  the  ship  carpenters  will  find 
full  employment  in  the  future,  as  they  have  in 
the  past  five  years,  in  building  houses,  stores, 
hotels,  churches,  opera  houses,  colleges,  etc. 

But  it  is  the  duty  of  Congress  to  see  to  it, 
that  our  ship  builders  are  protected  against 


the  half-paid  labor  of  Europe ;  and  our  states- 
men will  soon  be  compelled  to  devise  means 
to  protect  them,  and  increase  the  rewards  of 
labor ;  and  not  only  to  shield  our  workmen 
from  the  competition  of  the  pauper  labor  of 
Europe,  but  against  the  exactions  of  our 
"  merchant  princes."  The  aristocratic  states- 
man that  would  degrade  and  pauperize  our 
laborers  to  such  a  degree  that  they  can  under- 
sell the  half-famished  mechanics  of  England 
and  France  will  soon  be  required  to  retire 
from  public  life.  In  the  opinion  of  Andrew 
Johnson,  McCulloch,  Chamber  of  Commerce 
&  Co.,  if  the  people  of  the  United  States  can  be 
compelled  to  raise  produce,  build  ships,  etc.,  at 
so  low  prices  as  to  make  "a  dollar  fetch  a 
dollar,"  or  so  cheap  as  to  undersell  other 
nations  where  capital  is  seeking  investment  at 
two  and  three  per  cent,  per  annum,  and  men 
beg  for  work  for  three  and  four  shillings  per 
day,  the  perfection  of  statesmanship  and  all 
the  mysterious  problems  of  political  economy 
will  be  solved.  As  soon  as  the  "merchant 
princes  "  and  our  money  kings,  who  demand 
forty  per  cent,  added  to  their  investments 
in  Government  bonds,  can  reduce  the  price 
of  produce  and  labor  sufl&ciently  low  as 
to  keep  our  planters,  farmers,  mechanics  and 
workmen  from  becoming  demoralized,  their 
temporal  millennium  will  have  commenced. 
Then  white  men  will  wish,  as  in  the  hard- 
money  days  of  Bullion,  Buchanan  &  Co.,  that 
they  "  was  slaves  ;  "  and  the  freedmen  will 
beg  to  be  returned  to  slavery,  for  there  is  no 
slavery  so  galling  as  poverty ;  and  gold  is 
more  exacting,  more  cruel  than  the  Southern 
slave  masters  ever  were. 

We  have  an  explanation  to  a  mystery  when 
we  read  and  reflect  upon  the  report  from  the 
Chamber  of  Commerce.  It  is  said  that  there 
are  no  native-born  American  citizens  in  the 
City  of  New  York  that  can  be  trusted  with 
the  Government  and  funds  of  the  Corporation, 
and  that  they  are  obliged  to  elect  "better 
citizens  "  to  govern  the  city  and  to  take  charge 
of  the  public  improvements  and  money.  The 
character  of  the  report  we  have  been  consid- 
ering seems  to  justify  the  people  of  the  city 
and  their  practice  of  importing  their  rulers. 


THE  OHIO  STATESMAN— WHAT  IS  MONEY,  Etc. 


35 


THE  OHIO  STATESMAN— WHAT  IS 
MONEY  ?  Etc. 

The  question,  What  is  money  ?  is  beginning 
to  be  discussed  by  business  men  and  editors. 
A  few  scholars  and  men  professing  to  be 
political  economists  in  former  times  have  phi- 
losophized upon  the  subject  "of  what  is 
money  ?  "  These  writers,  instead  of  inquiring 
of  truth,  have  unfortunately  followed  the  style 
of  the  German  writers  on  Theology  ;  and  those 
who  mystified  the  subject  the  most  elaborately 
with  transcendentalisms,  which  neither  them- 
selves nor  their  readers  could  understand, 
have  been  supposed  to  be  the  most  profound 
and  correct  thinkers.  Our  modern  bullionists 
eludicate  the  subject  "of  what  is  money." 
Very  tersely,  they  say  "  that  a  dollar  is  that 
which  will  bring  a  dollar."  As  they  are  averse 
to  thinking,  and  a  large  number  of  them  are 
incapable  of  reasoning,  this  argument  to  them- 
selves is  conclusive,  without  considering  that 
the  Governments  of  the  world  have  no  com- 
mon standard  ;  that  the  coins  of  gold  and 
silver  of  the  different  nationalities  are  more  or 
less  alloyed  with  base  metals ;  that  their 
value  is  different  and  frequently  changed. 

It  is  a  pleasure  therefore  to  have  the  theory 
of  the  bullionists  defended  by  an  intelligent 
writer.  The  editor  of  the  Ohio  Statesman 
has  made  the  attempt,  and  his  article  upon 
the  subject  has  been  extensively  copied  and 
commented  upon,  and  is  supposed  by  many  to 
be  like  the  Bullionists'  dollars,  "the  real 
thing."  Our  limited  space  prevents  us  from 
referring  to  it  only  in  a  few  brief  paragraphs  ; 
we  think  we  shall  be  able  to  show  the  fallacy 
of  his  arguments.  He  supposes  that  gold  and 
silver  is  the  only  true  standard  of  values.  This 
we  believe  to  be  a  miscliievous  mistake  and  a 
grievous  error. 

The  editor  of  the  Standard  says  : 
The  object  of  money,  or  of  a  circulating 
medium  of  any  kind,  is  to  facilitate  exchanges. 
It  was  found  that  trade  or  commerce  could 
not  be  carried  out  to  any  extent  by  means  of 
barter  alone,  or  by  exchanging  one  specific 
article  for  another. 

This  is  perfectly  true.    And  he  adds  : 
That  money  or  currency  is  best  which  most 
facilitates  the  transaction  of  business — which 


serves  as  the  best  medium  of  exchange.  It 
should  act  as  lubricating  oil,  not  only  to  keep 
the  wheel  of  exchange  in  motion,  but  to  in- 
crease the  number  of  its  revolutions. 

This  is  also  correct.  But  unfortunately  for 
the  writer,  the  ag«nt  he  selects,  gold  and 
silver,  cannot  be  obtained  in  sufficient  quan- 
tities to  make  the  necessary  exchanges,  and 
therefore  his  argument  fails  of  application. 

Perhaps  he  would  follow  the  advice  ofR. 
J.  Walker,  Esq.,  and  borrow  several  hun- 
dred millions  of  specie  in  Europe,  which,  if 
practicable,  would  sacrifice  the  interests  of 
the  Nation.  We  contend  that  a  great  and 
wealthy  Nation  like  ours,  or,  the  State  of 
Ohio,  can  use  the  credit  of  the  Commonwealth 
as  a  basis  to  issue  bills  of  credit  upon,  without 
interest,  equal  to  ten  or  fifteen  per  cent,  of  the 
assessed  value  of  the  property  of  the  State  or 
Government,  and  be  perfectly  independent  of 
capitalists,  who  do  not  possess  the  tithe  of  the 
property  within  the  control  of  Congress  or  of 
the  State  of  Ohio.  The  credit  of  the  United 
States  is  perfectly  ample  for  the  basis  of  "  a 
medium  to  facilitate  exchange."  It  should 
not  be  forgotten  that  all  the  gold  and  silver 
is  subject,  as  well  as  all  other  descriptions  of 
property  in  the  country,  and  is  held,  as  a  secu- 
rity for  these  bills  of  credit,  and  they  are,  there- 
fore, good  beyond  a  contingency.  Jay  Cooke's 
Dutchman  argued  that  the  National  Bank 
bills  were  preferable  to  greenbacks,  because 
the  banks  endorsed  the  Government.  He  did 
not  consider  that  the  National  Bank  corpora- 
tions, and  all  the  property  of  the  directors,  and 
all  of  the  property  within  the  collection 
districts  of  the  United  States,  banks,  stocks, 
gold,  silver,  land,  etc.,  was  pledged  to  redeem 
the  notes  of  the  United  States  Treasury. 

If  there  was  a  sufficient  amount  of  gold  to 
be  obtained  at  one  per  cent.,  perhaps  it  would 
be  well  to  borrow  it  and  let  it  lay  idle  in  the 
vaults  ;  for,  when  the  bills  are  perfectly  secured, 
'gold  is  rarely  called  for.  But  as  Ohio  cannot 
obtain  sufficient  gold  to  form  a  basis  "  to  facili- 
tate exchanges,"  must  her  vast  wealth  lay 
dormant  until  it  can  be  obtained  ?  The  idea 
is  preposterous  ;  and  as  the  State  is  debarred 
by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  from 
coining  money  and  issuing  bills  of  credit,  it 


86 


OUR  NATIONAL  FINANCES. 


becomes  the  imperative  duty  of  the  Govern- 
ment to  supply  it.  Allow  the  farmers  of  Ohio 
fifty  cents  'per  day  for  their  labor,  and  one  per 
cent,  per  annum  for  their  capital  invested  in 
and  and  sheep,  etc.,  and  they  would  obtain 
more  per  pound  for  wool  than  they  are  receiv- 
ing ;  but  as  they  are  obliged  at  present  to  sell 
their  wool  from  twenty-five  to  thirty -five  cents 
per  pound,  we  would  ask  the  editor  of  the  States- 
man to  calculate  how  much  they  would  re- 
ceive, providing  specie  payment  was  forced 
upon  the  country,  and  his  standard  that  "  fa- 
cilitate exchange  "  put  into  operation.  There 
is  not  a  suflBcient  amount  of  gold  in  the  entire 
State  of  Ohio  to  purchase  the  sheep  in  the 
State  a  breakfast. 

We  give  the  editor  the  benefit  of  a  lengthy 
extract  from  his  article. 

The  most  essential  characteristic  of  the  best 
currency  is  that  it  is  a  uniform  standard  and 
steady  measure  of  value.  All  currency  is  bad 
just  to  the  extent  that  it  lacks  this  quality. 
Why  this  fundamental  point  is  not  more  dis- 
cussed and  better  understood,  is  to  us  a  mys- 
tery. It  is  evident  that,  if  we  were  purchas- 
ing cloth  by  the  yard  from  a  manufacturer 
whose  yardstick  possessed  such  peculiar 
powers  of  contraction  and  expansion  that  it 
was  thirty-five  inches  one  week,  thirty-seven 
another,  and  thirty-six  the  next,  we  could  do 
business  with  little  certainty  of  profit  or  satis- 
faction to  ourselves.  If  the  farmer  contracts 
to  sell  his  wheat  for  $1  per  bushel,  and  is  in- 
formed one  day  that  a  bushel  is  fifty-five 
pounds,  on  another  that  it  is  sixty-three,  and 
on  another  that  it  is  sixty-six  pounds,  it  is 
evident  that  he  knows  very  little  about  what 
he  is  getting  for  his  crop.  And  yet,  in  this 
matter  of  currency,  we  forget  that  we  are 
allowing  precisely  the  same  state  of  things  to 
exist  every  year.  We  agree  to  day  to  pay  for 
a  certain  service,  one  thousand  dollars,  six 
months  hence.  We  may  be  obliged  to  pay 
what  is  equivalent  to  eleven  hundred  of  to- 
day's dollars,  or  possibly  only  nine  hundred. 
Until  the  expiration  of  the  six  months,  we  can- 
not tell  whether  we  have  made  a  profitable  or 
a  ruinous  bargain. 

The  first  three  lines  of  the  above  paragraph 
is  correct  doctrine ;  but  the  fallacy  is  in  the  ap- 
plication. The  folly  of  the  Statesinan's  argu- 
ment is  in  assuming  that  gold  and  silver  fur- 
nish the  uniform  standard  his  fancy  pictures, 
which  is  a  delusion ;  he  imagines  the  gold  dol- 
lar is  the  true  yard  stick,  and  measures  uni- 
formly the  same.    There  was  never  a  greater 


and  we  might  add,  a  more  fatal  mistake.  He 
alleges,  "  There  is  but  one  remedy  for  this  un- 
certainty, and  this  perpetual  variation  in  the 
so-called  measure  of  value  ;  and  that  remedy  is 
a  return  to  a  specie  basis  for  our  paper  cur- 
rency. When  a  paper  dollar  is  at  all  times  re- 
deemable in  coin,  and  equivalent  to  coin,  it 
will  be  as  little  variable  in  value  as  gold." 
What  would  be  thought  of  the  wisdom  of  ten 
manufacturers  that  would  consent  to  wait  to 
have  ten  millions  of  yards  of  cloth  measured  by 
a  few  dozen  yard  sticks  made  of  gold,  when 
there  was  an  ample  supply  of  wooden  ones  of 
precisely  the  same  length  and  would  do  the 
business  in  one  hundredth  part  of  the  time ;  or 
of  one  million  of  farmers  waiting  to  have  sev- 
eral hundred  millions  of  bushels  of  grain 
measured  in  a  few  half  bushel  measures  made 
from  gold ;  or,  should  several  millions  of  farm- 
ers and  planters,  having  grain  to  sell,  allow  a 
few  hundred  thousand  men  to  increase  the 
size  of  the  half-bushel  measure  to  three  pecks, 
when  these  millions  of  men,  being  in  a  major- 
ity, can,  at  their  pleasure,  determine  the  size 
of  the  measure  and  the  price  to  be  received  for 
the  produce  ?  Would  they  be'  considered  rea- 
sonable men  if  they  allow  an  insignificant 
minority  to  rule  them  and  reduce  the  price  to 
suit  themselves,  and  especially  as  the  minority 
are  obliged  to  obtain  the  grain  or  starve  ?  This 
is  a  fruitful  theme ;  but  our  space  prevents  us 
from  following  it.  But  we  simply  ask  the  edi- 
tors of  the  Statesman  to  inform  us  what  is  the 
amount  of  gold  coin  in  the  State  of  Ohio,  one 
of  the  most  wealthy  and  flourishing  States  in 
the  Union.  And  what  is  the  present  "value  of 
the  property  of  the  State,  and  how  much  it 
would  measure  if  gold  dollars  were  to  mea- 
sure it  at  forced  sales,  or  what  would  be  the 
value  of  it  if  the  Government  should  force 
specie  payments  ?  The  Bullionists  declare  that 
the  Treasury  notes  are  not  real  dollars  ;  but 
say  that  the  Government  is  bound  to  pay  gold  ' 
dollars  to  those  who  loaned  the  Government 
Treasury  notes  or  paper  money,  and  this  they 
claim  is  justice  and  consistency.  The  Consti- 
tution gives  to  Congress  the  exclusive  privi- 
lege of  issuing  bills  of  credit,  and  fixing  the 
value  thereof.    And  as  Congress  authorized 


THE  OHIO  STATESMAN— WHAT  IS  MONEY,  Etc. 


37 


the  issue  of  Treasury  notes,  they  are  the  legal 
representative  of  values,  and  are  yard  sticks 
and  bushels  by  which  the  property  of 
the  country  is  measured.  They  have  received 
the  stamp  of  the  United  States  Government, 
and  the  Supreme  Court  has  declared  them  to 
be  the  legal  representative  of  values  and  pay- 
ment for  debts,  and  before  the  currency  was 
contracted  they  facilitated  trade  and  exchanges 
and  gave  employment  at  remunerative  rates  to 
the  entire  population,  who  were  more  prosper- 
ous and  contented  than  ever  before  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  country. 

It  is  a  misconception  to  suppose  that  the  ma 
teHal  from  which  money  is  manufactured, 
gives  it  the  value,  A.  T.  Stewart's  note  for 
one  million  of  dollars,  written  on  a  piece  of 
paper  that  cost  less  than  the  one-tenth  part  of 
a  cent,  will  sell  for  several  cart  loads  of  gold. 

It  is  an  indisputable  fact,  that  the  amount  of 
money  in  circulation  should  be  limited  only 
by  the  requirements  of  trade  and  the  amounts 
of  produce  to  be  exchanged.  And  as  it  is  impos- 
sible to  obtain  gold,  it  is  the  duty  of  the  Gov- 
ernment to  furnish  bills  of  credit,  Treasury 
notes,  which  benefit  both  the  people  and  the 
Government. 

In  another  paragraph,  the  Editor  says  : 
As  the  paper  dollar,  not  the  gold  dollar,  is 
the  measure  or  supposed  measure  of  value,  it 
is  perfectly  obvious  that  it  measures  nothing 
and  determines  the  value  of  nothing  with  ac- 
curacy, for  its  own  value  is  ever  variable. 
What  sort  of  a  standard  of  value  for  all  other 
values  is  that  which  is  itself  constantly  chang- 
ing ?  A  yard  is  a  yard,  an  inch  an  inch,  but  a 
dollar  is  not  a  dollar — it  may  be  sixty-eight 
cents  one  day,  and  seventy-two  cents  the  next, 
and  seventy  the  next. 

We  join  issue  with  the  Statesman,  and  de- 
clare that  gold  is  the  most  uncertain  and  un- 
reliable and  the  most  fluctuating  of  all  things 
that  was  ever  used  for  a  standard  of  comput- 
ing values. 

Gold  and  silver  are  the  most  successful 
agents  of  oppression,  of  fraud  and  robbery. 
It  is  the  greatest  lever  ever  discovered  in  the 
hands  of  ambitious  and  designing  men  to  make 
complete  revolutions  in  society  and  sudden  and 
destructive  fluctuations  in  values,  and  this  is 
the  reason  why  it  is  so  highly  prized  by  the 
money  kings. 


Previous  to  the  issue  of  the  United  States 
Treasury  Notes,  a  few  men  in  Wall  street  con- 
trolled the  money  and  produce  markets  of  the 
entire  country — having  control  of  the  great 
bulk  of  the  gold,  they  varied  the  price  of  it  to 
suit  themselves — one  week  money  was  worth 
7  per  cent.,  the  next  14,  and  frequently  good 
notes  sold  at  3  per  cent,  per  month  or  thirty-six 
'per  cent,  per  annum. 

When  they  chose  "  the  times  were  easy" 
and  gold  was  plenty  and  cheap,  and  when  they 
wished  "  the  times  were  hard  "  and  there  was  a 
scrabble  for  gold — to  sustain  the  small  banks. 
One  week  a  barrel  of  pork  would  purchase 
a  gold  eagle  ;  the  next,  it  would  require  two 
to  purchase  one  ;  the  pork  was  of  the  same 
quality  and  contained  the  same  amount  of 
food.  But  the  banks  declared  that  money 
was  "  tight "  and  not  to  be  obtained  at  any 
rates.  The  week  before,  money  was  clieap, 
now  it  is  dear  ;  last  week  good  men  could  ob- 
tain discounts  at  the  bank  at  7  per  cent ;  this 
week  they  cannot  obtain  a  dollar  at  14.  These 
men  were  solvent ;  the  net  value  of  their 
goods,  lands  and  merchandize  had  not  changed, 
but  the  value  of  gold  was  suddenly  increased 
to  the  great  detriment  of  trade  and  commerce. 
Will  the  editor  of  the  Statesman  attempt  to 
dispute  the  indisputable  fact,  that  gold  or  prop- 
erty is  valuable  just  in  proportion  to  what  it 
will  produce  in  interest  or  rent  ?  If  it  is 
claimed  that  it  was  the  property  or  credit  that 
fluctuated  in  value  and  not  the  gold  ;  we 
answer,  if  the  mere  hoarding  of  gold  will  de- 
stroy values  and  bankrupt  the  people,  it  is  a 
nuisance  and  should  be  prohibited  from  use  by 
law  ;  a  sensible  merchant  would  as  soon  have 
one  half  of  his  goods  destroyed  by  fire,  as  to 
have  them  depreciated  50  per  cent,  by  the  gold 
gamblers.  His  insurance  policy  would  save 
him  from  loss  by  fire  ;  but  he  has  no  insurance 
and  can  have  none,  except  Government  paper 
money,  against  the  "  operators,"  who  are  mor 
ally  no  better  than  the  incendiaries. 

The  Gold  Gamblers  that  operated  before  the 
war  and  the  issue  of  the  Government  paper 
money,  in  the  Bank  parlors  of  Wall  street,  were  a 
thousand  times  more  destructive  to  the  interest 
of  the  people  than  are  the  present  race  of  Gold 


88 


OUR  NATIONAL  FINANCES. 


Gamblers,  who  principally  prey  upon  each 
other.  Previously  they  disturbed  values  of  all 
descriptions  of  property  throughout  the  entire 
country.  Among  the  tens  of  thousands  of 
blessings  that  Government  paper  money  has 
conferred  upon  the  public,  not  the  least  has 
been  that  it  has,  to  a  very  great  extent, 
broken  the  power  of  the  Money  Kings  of 
New  York,  but  as  contraction  proceeded  they 
became  more  insolent  and  again  demanded  of 
solvent  firms  and  merchants  one  to  two  per  cent 
per  month  for  money  which  they  declare  is 
only  rags.  If  the  editor  of  the  Statesman 
would  come  to  New  York,  and  learn  the  history 
and  study  the  character  and  tactics  of  the 
Money  and  Bailroad  Kings,  who  aspire  to 
rule  the  people  of  the  United  States — he  would 
learn  their  measures  are  so  large,  that  it  is  im- 
possible to  fill  them,  and  so  loiig  as  not  to  be 
endured. 

The  reduction  of  the  currency — which  is 
merely  reducing  the  number  of  measures,  yard 
sticks,  or  scales — has  reduced  the  prices  of 
sheep  and  wool  in  the  United  States,  within 
the  last  eighteen  months  at  the  lowest  cal- 
culation, $300,000,000,  of  which  the  State 
of  Ohio  has  lost  her  full  proportion.  The 
farmers  have  been  deprived  or  cheated  out  of 
at  least  forty  millions  of  dollars,  in  the  article 
of  wool,  which  if  they  had  received,  would  be 
now  circulating  through  all  of  the  channels  of 
trade  and  industry,  and  imparting  activity  and 
life,  where  there  is  at  present  stagnation  and 
discontent.  The  result  of  contraction  was 
cheap  mutton  and  cheap  wool.  Has  the  cheap- 
ening of  these  two  commodities  of  common 
life  been  beneficial  to  the  people  ?  We  answer 
emphatically.  No  I  In  another  chapter  we  have 
examined  the  subject  to  which  we  invite  the 
attention  of  the  reader,  and  think  if  the 
Statesman  would  defend  the  interests  of  the 
farmers  of  Ohio  instead  of  petifogging  for 
capital  and  capitalists,  who  are  always  flourish- 
ing and  require  no  help  or  sympathy  from  the 
country  press,  he  would  be  more  profitably 
employed. 

AN  OLD  FALSEHOOD  EXPOSED. 
The  principal  argument,  if  false  statements 
can  be  properly  called  arguments,  advanced  in 


favor  of  paying  the  5-20  bonds  in  gold  is,  that 
at  the  time  they  were  issued,  the  Government 
was  in  great  straits  for  money,  and  would  have 
been  obliged  to  succumb  to  the  Rebellion  unless 
the  capitalists  advanced  money,  etc.,  etc.  That 
the  Government  could  only  raise  the  funds  to 
sustain  itself,  the  army  etc.,  etc.,  by  ofiering 
great  inducements,  extra  interest,  etc.,  etc. 
Bonds  payable  principal  and  interest  in  gold 
etc.,  etc. 

The  Tory  Capitalists  of  England,  undoubt- 
edly believed  this,  and  wishing  the  Rebellion 
to  succeed,  refused,  before  they  were  asked,  to 
loan  our  Government  money  on  any  terms. 
The  Copperhead  Capitalists  of  Wall  street,  and 
a  majority  of  our  Bankers  who  sustained  the 
Union  professed  to  believe  that  the  Govern- 
ment was  entirely  dependent  upon  Capitalists, 
Banks  and  Bankers  for  its  existence.  But  this 
was  only  twaddle.  If  they  really  thought  so, 
it  was  because  they  had  no  just  conception  of 
the  magnitude  of  the  wealth  of  the  United 
States,  and  did  not  understand  the  latent 
power  in  the  Constitution,  which  authorizes 
Congress  to  '*  issue  bills  of  credit,  coin  money, 
and  fix  the  value  thereof."  The  great  banks  of 
Nassau,  Broadway  and  Wall  streets,  it  is  noto- 
rious, did  their  utmost  to  discredit  Govern- 
ment money,  especially  the  first  issue  ;  they  re- 
fused to  receive  it  on  deposit — would  "not 
receive  such  trash,"  or  if  they  did,  they  re- 
ceived them  only  as  special  deposits,  and  would 
not  recognize  them  as  money. 

In  a  few  weeks  there  was  a  marvelous 
change,  and  in  spite  of  the  attempts  of  the 
banks  and  bankers  to  discard  the  Greenbacks 
the  public  preferred  them  to  the  bills  of  the 
best  State  Banks,  and  they  were  sought  for  at  a 
premium. 

The  truth  is,  and  ten  thousand  falsehoods 
can  not  alter  it,  as  soon  as  the  Government  en- 
graved the  plates  and  printed  and  stamped 
these  bills  of  credit,  there  was  not  the  least 
necessity  of  making  loans  or  selling  bonds, 
excepting  upon  the  Government's  own  terms. 
The  people  would  as  readily  receive  the  Treas- 
ury notes,  fresh  from  the  paymasters,  as  after 
they  had  been  delivered  to  the  capitalists.  They 
were  not  increased  in  value  or  credit  by  being 
paid  out  by  the  banks  or  bankers. 


THE  NATIONAL  BANKS. 


39 


If  the  Government  bad  issued  $1,000,000,000 
and  paid  them  out  to  the  army  and  Govern- 
ment contractors,  and  offered  a  five  per-cent. 
loan,  payable  in  five  years,  interest  and  princi- 
pal in  currency,  or  3-per-cent.  thirty  year 
bonds,  payable  principal  and  interest  in  gold, 
the  war  would  have  been  as  vigorously  prose- 
cuted, and  the  National  Finances  been  in  a  far 
more  satisfactory  condition  than  they  are  at  the 
present  time.  And  these  3-per-cent.  bonds 
would  be  selling  for  more  gold  than  the  5-20 
bonds  now  command.  It  is  a  principle,  or 
rather  common  prudence  teaches  capitalists  to 
take  into  consideration  the  habits  as  well  as  the 
wealth  of  the  borrowers.  Spendthrifts,  and 
those  who  recklessly  offer  the  largest  bonusses' 
are  not  the  most  successful  negotiators.  If  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  had  pursued  this 
policy,  Jay  Cooke  &  Co.,  and  a  host  of  other 
bankers  and  stock  and  gold  gamblers,  several 
hundreds  of  whom  have  become  millionaires, 
from  profits  derived  from  the  Government, 
would  not  now  be  preaching  "  economy  "  and 
urging  Congress  to  commit  itself,  or  the 
Nation,  to  increase  their  gains  forty  per  cent, 
that  the  "  honor  "  of  the  Nation  may  be  pre- 
served immaculate. 

Our  capitalists,  some  of  whom  have  become 
so  imperiously  proud  and  aristocratic,  that  they 
wish  to  be  considered  the  main  pillars  of  the 
Republic,  bombastically  talk  as  if  they,  or 
their  money  was  the  chief  support  of  the  Gov- 
ernment in  the  days  of  trial,  when  in  fact  these 
very  men  advised  our  incompetent  minister  of 
finance,  to  issue  gold-bearing  bonds,  and  sac- 
rifice the  best  interests  of  the  public  by  squan- 
dering upon  nabobs  hundreds  of  millions  of 
d  )llais  of  gold.  It  is  a  miserable  falsehood  to 
say,  that  the  Government  required  their  aid  or 
money.  It  does  now,  and  from  the  bloated  in- 
comes of  these  gentlemen  should  be  collected 
the  taxes  to  pay  a  large  porportion  of  the  ex- 
penses of  the  Government. 

THE  NATIONAL  BANKS. 

In  one  of  our  Pamphlets  on  "  our  National 
Finances,"  published  in  1864,  we  made  the  fol- 
lowing remark  on  the  National  Banks : 


The  National  Banks  are  a  very  great  im- 
provement upon  the  State  banking  system  ;  are 
far  better  calculated  to  assist  the  Government ; 
for  temporary  depositories  of  Government 
money,  and  as  auxiliaries  of  the  Treasury  De- 
partment, they  are  eminently  useful,  and  they 
will  prove  ligaments  of  immense  power  to  bind 
in  one  the  great  bundle  of  States. 

But,  when  the  whole  truth  is  stated,  these 
institutions  have  privileges  granted  them  by 
Congress  that  are  inconsistent  with  economy 
and  sound  legislation ;  for  a  Government, 
so  deeply  involved  in  debt  as  ours,  to  give 
away  such  valuable  privileges,  is  squandering 
the  people's  patrimony.  It  would  really  be 
about  as  consistent  to  grant  to  individuals  and 
corporations  the  privilege  of  establishing  pri- 
vate custom  houses  to  collect  duties  on  impor- 
tations in  the  different  cities,  and  in  the  wards 
of  those  cities.  These  banking  privileges  are 
valuable  and  the  Government  should  receive 
an  equivalent.  As  at  present  constructed,  they 
draw  a  heavy  usury  from  the  Government  and  • 
the  people ;  receiving,  for  simply  keeping  an 
oflice,  one  per  cent,  per  monjth,  or  about  12  per 
cent,  per  annum,  on  their  capital,  which  is  ex- 
orbitant. If  the  Government  bonds  they  have 
deposited  were  drawing  only  three  per  cent., 
and  the  rate  of  interest  they  charged  on  loans 
was  but  three  or  four  per  cent.,  there  would  be 
more  consistency. 

Three  years  of  reflection  has  convinced  us 
that  which  we  wrote  then,  is  sound  doctrine, 
and  we  believe  that  Congress  should  amend 
the  National  Banking  Law,  or  frame  a  new 
one,  which  would  compel  the  banks  to  ex- 
change their  six  per  cent,  bonds  deposited  with 
the  Government  for  new  three  per  cent,  long 
bonds,  and  if  they  refused,  to  tax  them  out  of 
existence,  as  Congress  did  the  old  State  banks. 
The  bankers  and  capitalists  would  brand  this 
as  dishonorable ;  although  the  act  contains 
the  clause,  that  Congress  can  annul,  alter, 
and  amend,  etc.,  the  men  that  would  oppose 
this  proposition  to  reduce  the  rate  of  interest, 
are  the  men  who  are,  and  have  been,  the  most 
active  in  endeavoring  to  have  the  Treasury 
notes  destroyed  for  the  avowed  purpose  of  re- 
ducing the  price  of  labor,  materials,  and  the 
products  of  the  shops  and  farms,  and  this  con- 
duct proves  that  their  opposition  to  the  reduc- 
tion of  the  rate  of  interest  springs  from  personal 
interest,  and  not  from  principle.  Intelligent 
persons  will  deny  that  Congress  can  control  the 
rate  of  interest  "  any  more  than  they  can  the 
tides but  we  know  the  Government  can,  and 


40 


OUR  NATIONAL  FINANCES. 


tliis  great  power  should  be  wielded  to  protect 
the  people  from  excessive  burdens  and  tax- 
ation. 

If  the  Government  had  kept  the  principal 
part  of  the  gold  it  has  collected  the  past  four 
years,  as  it  could  and  should  have  done,  it 
could  have  easily  controlled  the  finances  of  the 
continent,  if  not  of  Europe.  If  the  three  hun- 
dred millions  of  gold  now  laying  in  the  vaults  of 
the  banks  of  England  and  France,  was  where 
it  belongs,  in  our  Treasury  vaults,  those  banks 
would  not,  as  they  do  now,  be  complaining  of 
"  a  glut  of  gold."  Over  one-third  of  this  sura 
has  been  unnecessarily  paid  to  foreigners  as 
interest,  and  the  balance  for  wines,  brandies, 
etc.,  etc.,  which  the  nation  could  have  dis- 
pensed with.  A.  T.  Stewart  and  other  foreign 
merchants'  incomes  would  not  have  been  so 
"  redundant "  and  "  plethoric ;  "  but  the  people 
and  the  Government  would  have  held  the 
grandest  position  in  Christendom,  and  our 
finances  would  have  been  as  triumphant  as 
were  our  army  and  navy. 

It  is  certain,  if  Congress  should  instruct  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to  resume  "now" 
and  compel  the  National  Banks  to  pay 
specie,  their  circumstances  would  compel 
them  to  draw  every  dollar  of  gold  from 
the  Treasury,  as  fast  as  it  could  be  counted  out 
to  them.  The  situation  of  the  Philadelphia 
and  Boston  banks  proves  this.  They  hold  less 
than  one  million  of  specie  ;  their  deposits  are 
some  ninety  millions,  and  circulation  thirty-six 
millions.  These  figures  give  an  idea  of  the 
rush  and  fight  there  would  be  made  for  gold. 
Order  the  National  Banks  to  pay  specie,  and 
seventeen  hundred  of  their  agents,  at  least, 
would  besiege  the  United  States  Treasury,  de- 
manding gold  for  greenbacks.  It  would  take 
the  graphic  pen  of  Dickens  to  describe  the 
scene.  The  exhibitions  at  the  sale  of  tickets, 
for  his  readings,  would  be  no  circumstance. 
The  truth  is,  the  circulation  of  the  National 
Banks  blocks  the  road  to  resumption,  and 
will  for  years  to  come. 

The  Government,  probably,  could  resume  at 
once,  and  stand  the  run  of  the  foreign  bankers 
and  merchants.  Our  own  people  would  re- 
quire or  demand  but  a  small  amount  of  gold, 


they  generally  prefer  bills ;  but  the  talk  of  re- 
sumption, with  seventeen  hundred  banks  fight- 
ing for  specie  to  preserve  their  existence,  is 
talking  of  an  utter  impossibility. 

A  FALSE  ACCUSATION. 
One  of  the  latest  fabrications,  used  to  slander 
the  United  States  money,  is  to  denounce  it  "  as 
a  forced  loan."    In  the  Senate's  Finance  Com- 
mittee Report,  they  say  : 

This  currency  now  forms  a  part  of  the  pub- 
lic debt,  and,  being  a  legal-tender  in  the  pay- 
ment of  debts,  is  in  the  nature  of  a  compulsory 
loan  without  interest. 

How  this  language  can  be  justified  by  grave 
Senators,  it  is  difficult  to  imagine.  For  it  is 
only  a  cant  phrase,  borrowed  from  the  Bullion- 
ists,  and  there  is  not  a  particle  of  truth  to  sup- 
port the  assertion,  that  the  Treasury  notes  are 
of  the  nature  "  of  a  forced  loan." 

Ever  since  the  first  issue  of  this  Government 
paper  money,  it  has  been  popular,  the  public 
refusing  to  accept  the  bills  of  the  soundest 
State  banks,  and  demanding  the  bills  of  credit 
issued  by  the  Government.  The  people  have 
at  all  times  received  this  money  gladly,  and 
are  willing  to-day,  and  more  than  willing,  to 
sell  Jive  billions  of  dollars  worth  of  improved 
real  estate  and  good  personal  property,  and 
take  this  money,  valuing  their  farms,  houses 
and  lots,  plantations,  etc.,  etc.,  at  a  price  not 
exceeding  their  fair  value,  prsvious  to  the 
suspension  of  specie  payments.  Millions 
of  the  10  40  five-per-cent.  gold  bonds  of  the 
United  States  G^overnment  can  be  purchased 
with  Treasury  notes  at  par,  and  one  hundred 
millions  of  dollars  of  these  bonds,  at  least, 
should  be  purchased  and  destroyed  within  the 
next  three  months. 

The  great  and  rich  Pacific  Railroad  Com- 
pany are  oflering  their  bonds,  principal  and 
interest  payable  in  gold,  at  95,  and  take  green- 
backs. This  company  seem  to  appreciate  the 
Treasury  money.  It  would  be  better  for  Gov- 
ernment to  take  their  whole  loan  than  to  let  a 
single  million  dollars  of  it  go  to  Europe. 

If  the  Senate  Finance  Committee  wish  to  test 
this  matter,  as  to  whether  this  money  is  of  the 
nature  of  forced  loan,  let  them  ofier  to  loan  a 
thousand  millions  of  dollars  at  seven  per  cent,  on 


THE  SITUATION  OF  THE 


SOUTHERN  STATES,  Etc. 


4i 


real  estate  worth  double  the  amount,  and  they 
will  witness  a  competition  for  it  that  will  con- 
vince the  most  sceptical,  that  no  force  or  com- 
pulsion is  required  to  loan  it.  And  this  would 
demonstrate  that  the  demand  for  money  is  far 
greater  than  the  supply,  and  it  is  a  solemn  truth, 
if  there  is  one  duty  more  imperative  than 
another  that  pertains  to  legitimate  and  wise 
legislation,  it  is  that  good  Governments  are 
bound  by  correct  principle  and  interest  to  sup- 
ply their  subjects  or  people  with  an  ample  and 
well  secured  medium  of  exchange. 

It  is  said,  if  Congress  should  make  further 
issues  of  Treasury  notes  it  would  be  injurious 
to  the  credit  "of  the  Government.  This  state- 
ment has  no  more  foundation  than  the  one  in 
respect  to  "  forced  loans. "  If  one  hundred  or 
two  hundred  millions  of  dollars  of  the  Govern- 
ment bonds  should  be  purchased  and  cancelled, 
the  supply  of  bonds  would  be  reduced  and  the 
money  paid  for  them  once  in  circulation,  the 
demand  for  investments  would  be  increased, 
and  a  capitalist  would  be  a  simpleton  not  to 
understand  that  the  less  the  amount  of  inter- 
est the  Government  was  called  upon  to  pay, 
the  more  capable  it  would  be  to  pay  it.  A  cor- 
poration or  individual  that  would  pay  six  per 
per  cent,  per  annum  for  the  use  of  money  when 
it  could  be  obtained  for  three  percent.,  or  have 
the  use  of  it  for  nothing,  would  be  a  fit  subject 
for  the  Lunatic  Asylum. 

To  coin  and  stamp  and  issue  bills  of  credit  by 
an  established  and  responsible  Government,  is 
a  mighty  beneficent  power  when  used  discreetly 
for  the  benefit  of  the  whole  people.  And  the 
public  have  the  same  right  to  demand  that  it 
should  be  used  to  secure  their  welfare  and  pro- 
tect them  from  capital,  as  they  have  to  demand 
protection  for  their  lives. 

The  men  who  talk  the  loudest  and  longest 
about  "  strict  economy  "  and  "  forced  loans,  " 
are  those  who  are  most  anxious  to  place  the 
Government  in  a  situation  to  compel  it  to  sub- 
mit to  the  extortions  of  capitalists.  They  make 
a  great  noise  about  reducing  the  pay  of  clerks, 
and  compelling  members  of  Congress  to  pay 
for  the  stationery  they  use,  and  for  postage 
stamps,  etc.,  but  strenously  advocate  measures 
that  would  rob  the  Treasury  of  hundreds  of 
millions  of  dollars  and  put  it  into  the  pockets 
6 


of  millionaires  and  foreign  speculators.  They 
declaim  eloquently  about  gold  and  silver 
being  "  the  money  of  the  world,  "  and  are  not 
aware  that  America  is  a  world  of  itself — the 
New  World  ;  that  we  have  a  free  and  inde- 
pendent Government,  entirely  difi*erent  from 
the  old  and  effete  dynasties  of  Europe,  and  the 
people  are  determined  or  will  soon  determine 
not  to  be  ruled  or  ruined  by  (joldy  the  greatest 
and  most  exacting  and  cruel  of  all  tyrants. 

THE  SITUATION  OE  THE  SOUTHERN 
STATES— WHAT  IS  REQUIRED  TO 
RESTORE  HAPPINESS  AND  PROS- 
PERITY. 

If  there  ever  was  a  people,  that  could,  or 
should  say,  '*  save  us  from  our  friends,"  it  is 
the  whites  in  the  South.  President  Johnson 
and  Secretary  McCulloch,  have  placed  the  peo- 
pie  of  the  South  in  the  same  situation  as  they 
intended  to  plunge  the  people  of  the  whole 
country.  Mr.  McCulloch  in  his  late  report  re- 
fers to  his  previous  report  and  says  : 

In  his  report  to  Congress,  under  date  of  the 
4th  of  December,  1865,  the  Secretary  presented, 
as  fully  and  as  clearly  as  he  was  able  to  do,  his 
views  upon  the  subject  of  the  currency  and  the 
necessity  of  aciion  for  the  purpose  of  bringing 
about  a  return  to  specie  payments.  The  views 
thus  presented  by  him  were  approved  by  the 
Hoase  of  Representatives  on  the  8th  of  Decem- 
ber, 1865,  by  the  adoption  of  the  following 
resolution,  by  the  decisive  vote  of  144  to  6  : 

Resolted,  That  this  House  cordially  concurs  in 
the  views  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  in 
relation  to  the  necessity  of  a  contraction  of  tht 
currency,  with  a  view  to  as  early  a  resumption 
of  specie  payments  as  the  business  interests  of 
the  country  will  permit ;  and  we  hereby  pledge 
co-operative  action  to  this  end  as  speedily  as 
practicable. 

His  recommendation,  he  refers  to,  was  the 
following,  which  is  his  great  panacea  for  all 
the  ills  of  the  Nation. 

To  such  a  condition  of  national  prosperity  ae 
will  insure  a  permanent  restoration  of  the 
specie  standard  the  following  measures  are,  in 
the  opinion  of  the  Secretary,  important,  if  not 
indispensable  : 

First,  The  funding  or  i)ayment  of  tlie  bal- 
ance ot  interest-bearing  notes,  and  a  continued 
contraction  of  the  paper  currency. 

The  Secretary  fails  to  reveal  the  fact,  that 
within  thirty  days,  Congress  passed  another 
resolution,  preventing  the  destruction  of  the 


OUR  NATIONAL  FINANCES. 


life  blood  of  tlie  Nation  (the  treasury  notes),  j 
faster  than  four  millions  per  month.  If  it  had  | 
at  that  time,  passed  an  act  as  it  has  at  the  pres- 
ent session  forbiding  contraction,  the  indus- 
trial, financial  and  political  situation  of  the 
country  would  have  been  in  a  much  more 
satisfactory  situation  than  it  is,  and  if  it  had 
not  placed  a  restraint  on  the  power  of  the 
Secretary,  he  would  have  shipwrecked  the 
finances,  and  the  Northern  and  Western  States 
would  have  been  at  the  present  time,  in  only  a 
little  better  situation  than  the  Southern  States, 
and  the  prospects  of  the  success  of  the  Re- 
publican party  would  be  slim  indeed. 

We  are  convinced,  that  it  has  been  the  in- 
tention of  McCulloch  &  Co.  from  the  first,  to 
bring  bankruptcy  and  ruin  upon  the  Northern 
as  well  as  the  Southern  States,  being  aware 
that  this  was  the  only  possible  way  in  which 
"  rehabilitation "  and  reconstruction  on  the 
Johnsonian  plan  could  be  inaugurated,  and 
which  would  insure  the  defeat  and  destruction 
of  the  Republican  party.  It  was  a  diabolical  and 
monstrous  scheme,  and  came  very  near  being 
successful.  The  great  error  of  the  Republican 
party, is  that  it  has  allowed  McCulloch  to  lead 
them  and  the  country  to  the  very  brink  of  ruin. 
If  there  had  been  one  or  two  hundred  millions 
of  the  circulating  medium  added  to  the  cur- 
rency and  judiciously  placed  in  the  South, 
the  suffering  and  confusion  that  is  prevailing 
there  at  present  would  have  been  avert- 
ed, and  which  is  used  with  effect  to  make 
universal  suffrage  and  the  Republican  party 
unpopular. 

We  are  aware  that  war,  pestilence,  floods, 
worms  and  droughts,  which  seem  to  have  been 
dispensations  of  Providence,  have  aflBicted  the 
inhabitants  of  the  South.  But  the  principal 
source  of  the  present  poverty  and  distress  has 
been  created  by  the  absence  of  a  circulating 
medium.  Messrs.  Johnson,  McCulloch  &  Co., 
have  assured  them  that  there  was  a  "pleth'>ric" 
"redundant"  currency  ;  that  the  price  of  cotton 
tobacco,  etc.,  was  "inflated"  and  that  "healthy" 
times  could  only  be  restored  by  a  severe  con- 
traction of  the  currency,  but  we  do  not  suppose 
that  any  sensible  man  in  the  entire  South, 
believed  such  arrant  nonsense,  but  swal- 
lowed  it  expecting  when    the  Republican 


party  was  destroyed,  a  new  crop  of  State 
Banks,  and  payment  for  slaves,  etc.,  would  par- 
tially remunerate  them  for  their  sufferings  and 
losses.  The  majority  of  these  men  unfortunately 
believe  that  there  can  nothing  good  come  to 
them  out  of  (Nazareth)  the  Republican  party. 

In  the  seven  Cotton  States  of  North  and  South 
Carolina,  Alabama,  Georgia,  Mississippi,  Lou- 
isiana and  Texas,  they  have  twenty  Banks  with 
a  circulation  of  only  $2,684,800.  This  sum  is 
scarcely  sufiicient  to  purchase  food  for  the  in- 
habitants for  a  single  day.  Contrast  this  with 
some  of  the  Northern  States.  New  York  has 
314  Banks,  with  a  circulation  of  $72,558,885  ; 
Massachusetts  203  Banks,  with  a  circulation  of 
$57,420,265. 

These  figures  reveal  the  whole  secret.  Missis- 
sippi has  two  Banks,  and  only  $66,000  circula- 
tion. A  Broadway  Faro  Bank  requires  more 
capital  to  start  a  respectable  hell  than  the  great 
and  rich  State  of  Mississippi  is  allowed,  to  cul- 
tivate her  immense  area  of  land,  and  make  her 
purchases  and  exchanges  with.  Is  it  aston 
ishing  that  we  hear  cries  of  distress  from  these 
States  ?  What  would  be  the  effect  in  New 
York,  Massachusetts,  or  Pennsylvania,  if  the 
facilities  for  obtaining  money  were  restricted 
to  this  extent.  There  would  be  civil  war  in 
thirty  days,  and  not  a  single  Bank  or  wealthy 
person  would  escape  from  being  plundered. 
We  state  this  in  as  few  words  as  possible,  and 
hasten  from,  the  contemplation  of  the  horrid 
subject. 

We  cut  the  following  extracts  from  the  New 
York  Tribune,  which  give  a  vivid  view  of  the 
situation  in  the  South : 

SOUTHERN  REAL  ESTATE  ITEMS. 

A  correspondent  writing  from  Hinesville, 
Liberty  County,  Ga.,  says:  "A  sale  has  taken 
place  at  this  county  seat  that  so  well  marks  the 
extreme  depression  in  the  money  market  that 
I  send  you  the  particulars.  Colonel  Quarter- 
man,  of  this  county,  deceased,  and  his  executor 
Judge  Featter,  was  compelled  to  close  the  es- 
tate. The  property  was  advertised,  as  required 
by  law,  and  on  last  court  day  it  was  sold.  A 
handsome  residence  at  VV^althourville,  with  ten 
acres  attached,  out  houses  and  all  the  necessary 
appendages  of  a  first-class  planter's  residence, 
was  sold  for  $00.  The  purchaser  was  the  agent 
of  the  Freedmen's  Bureau.  His  plantation,  four 
hundred  and  fifty  acres  of  prime  land,  l^rought 
$150  ;  sold  to  a  Mr.  Fr^ser.  Sixty-six  acres  of 
other  land,  near  Walthourville,  brought  $3  ; 


THE  SITUATION  OF  THE  SOUTHBBX  STATES,  Etc. 


43 


purchaser  Mr.  W.  D.  Bacon.  These  were  all  ] 
bona  fide  sales.  It  was  court  day,  and  a  larnre 
concourse  of  people  were  present.  The  most 
of  them  were  large  property  owners,  but  really 
had  not  $5  in  their  pockets,  and  in  consequence 
would  not  bid,  as  the  sales  were  for  cash." 

In  the  face  of  facts  like  these,  the  President 
and  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  advise  Congress 
to  reduce  the  circulating  medium.  In  an  edi- 
torial in  the  same  paper  we  read  as  follows  : 

SOUTHEKN  RELIEF, 

The  South  is  to-day  rich  in  land  and  poor  in 
almost  everything  else.  Part  of  her  soil  is  badly 
cultivated,  the  larger  portion  unproductive, 
while  her  mines  are  unopened,  and  her  water- 
power  runs  to  waste,  because  she  has  no  capital 
wherewith  to  develope  and  improve  them.  .  . 
Families  which  hold  a  thousand  acres  of  mainly 
good  soil,  but  generally  in  bad  condition,  are  ab- 
solutely harassed  by  debts  of  a  few  hundred  dol- 
lars, and  know  not  how  to  meet  them.  .  .  . 
Beds  of  ore  and  mines  of  coal  that  will  soon  bo 
worth  tens  of  thousands  of  dollars  are  included 
in  tracts  of  mainly  timbered  land  that  are  of- 
fered for  $20  per  acre  or  less  ;  while  planta- 
tions of  one  to  two  thousand  acres  seek  pur- 
chasers for  less  than  the  cost  of  their  buildings. 
Laborers  in  abundance  cling  to  or  surround 
those  plantations,  anxious  to  be  liired  for  $10 
per  month  and  rations  that  would  cost  less  than 
$5  more.  As  good  labor  as  theirs  cannot  be 
hired  this  way  for  less  than  $30  per  month  (in- 
cluding board),  and  the  blacks  expect  to  work 
long  and  hard  in  the  crop-making  season. 

The  editor  advises  Northerners  to  go  South 
and  purchase  land,  etc.  Very  good  advice,  and 
a  good  speculation,  undoubtedly.  But  this 
would  be  only  a  slow  and  tortuous  mode  of  re- 
lief. If  the  Government  would  issue  two  hun- 
dred or  three  hundred  millions  of  dollars  and 
loan  it  to  ten  of  the  Southern  States  at  3  per 
cent,  to  shield  them  from  the  financial  sharks 
that  are  taking  advantage  of  their  necessities 
and  keeping  them  in  the  Slough  of  Despond, 
this  v/ould  allow  them  to  repair  their  levees, 
purchase  agricultural  tools  and  implements, 
seeds,  etc.,  etc.,  and  it  would  in  three  years 
add  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars  to  the 
wealth  of  the  country.  If  Congress  should  do 
his.  Reconstruction,  peaceful  and  permanent, 
would  soon  be  accomplished.  The  South  must 
have  prosperity  before  she  can  become  recon- 
ciled, and  she  cannot  have  prosperity  without 
the  assistance  of  money.  She  cannot  employ 
or  feed  the  freedmen,  and  raise  large  crops  so 
necessary  for  the  general  welfare,  unless  she 


can  obtain  money.  And  she  cannot  obtain 
money  unless  the  General  Government  pro- 
vides it.  It  is  the  duty,  and  should  be  the 
pleasure,  of  Congress,  to  assist  the  Southern 
States, 

The  usurers  would  howl  again  as  fierce  as 
they  have  for  the  past  five  years,  about  "  ca- 
lamity," "  Bankruptcy,"  "  Rags,"  "  Forced 
Loans,"  etc.,  etc.,  but  with  an  ample  supply  of 
Government  money  in  circulation,  peace  and 
rapid  prosperity  in  every  section  of  our  broad 
land  would  cheer  the  hearts  and  give  renewed 
energy  to  the  people,  and  knit  the  bonds  of 
Union  closer  than  ever. 

The  great  requirement  of  the  South  is  money. 
The  cry  comes  from  every  quarter,  we  require 
money.  We  will  sell  our  lands  for  one  quarter 
of  their  value.  We  require  money  to  purchase 
seed  and  pay  hands.  We  have  plenty  of  good 
property,  but  must  have  money.  We  want 
money.  Certainly  you  do,  and  as  soon  as  your 
seventy  members  of  Congress  take  their  seats, 
if  they  are  not  fools,  you  idll  get  it.  The  reason 
why  the  capitalists  and  Johnson,  McCuUoch 
&  Co.,  -wish  to  keep  you  quarrelling  on  the 
negro  question,  is  because  they  are  determined 
to  keep  the  Southern  States  unrepresented 
until  they  can  get  their  5-20  and  their  long 
bonds  arranged  to  suit  themselves,  and  have  the 
Government  eternally  bound  in  chains  that 
cannot  be  severed,  even  with  the  assistance  of 
the  Southern  States. 

The  negroes  are  free,  and  the  edict  cannot  be 
broken,  and  they  are  bound  to  vote.  Let  them 
vote.  They  will  sustain  the  men  that  sustain 
the  interests  of  the  South.  The  principal  in- 
terest in  the  South  is  that  of  Agriculture  and 
Labor,  There  can  be  no  conflict  on  the  sub- 
ject between  the  whites  and  blacks.  The  in. 
creased  representation  from  colored  suffrage 
will  be  required,  and  be  in  season  to  meet  and 
repel  the  encroachments  of  concentrated  capi- 
tal, and  we  advise  the  South  to  come  to  the 
help  of  labor  against  the  mighty  as  soon  as 
possible. 

In  one  of  our  pamphlets  published  in  the 
Winter  of  1865,  we  wrote  the  extract  which 
we  copy  below.  We  anticipated  that  there 
would  be  distress  and  siifiering,  and  exerted 


44 


OUR  NATIONAL  FINANCES. 


ourself  in  vain  to  have  some  plan  adopted  by 
the  Government  to  avert  it. 

A  SUGGESTION  THA'T NWII.L  NOT  BE  ADOPTED. 

The  Soutliern  States  contain  about  450  mil- 
lions of  acres  of  land.  If  the  Government 
would  appropriate  and  sell  200  millions  of  acres 
of  this  land,  in  200-acre  farms,  to  500  thousand 
poor  white  men,  and  500  thousand  colored  men, 
at  $10  per  acre,  on  a  credit  of  ten  years,  at  3 
per  cent,  interest,  and  advance  them  $500  each 
to  erect  dwellings  and  purchase  tools,  etc  ,  the 
sum  would  amount  to  2,500  millions  of  dollars; 
the  annual  interest  on  the  mortgages  would  be 
75  millions  of  dollars,  which  sum,  if  placed  in 
a  sinking  fund,  would  pay  the  Government 
debt  in  less  than  twenty-five  years.  And  this 
one  million  of  free  and  independent  farmers 
would,  by  their  labor  and  improvements,  in- 
crease the  wealth  of  the  Southern  States  enor- 
mously ;  and  the  remaining  250  millions  of 
acres  would  be  increased  in  price  to  double  and 
treble  the  present  value  of  all  the  land  in  the 
Southern  country.  This  is  a  feasible  sugges- 
tion ;  but  as  it  involves  trouble  for  the  benefit 
of  poor  people,  is  very  unlikely  to  be  adopted. 

This  would  be  a  work  worthy  of  the  Freed - 
men's  Bureau — worthy  of  a  Government  that 
was  in  earnest  to  do  good  ;  but  it  seems  to  have 
been  the  established  policy  of  the  statesmen  of 
the  United  States,  previous  to  the  inaugura- 
tion of  Mr.  Lincoln,  to  do  as  little  good  as  pos- 
sible, and  to  restrict  the  benefits  of  legislation 
to  the  narrowest  limits. 

THE  INCONSISTENCIES  OF  MERCHANTS 
FARMERS    AND    MECHANICS— THE 
INSOLENCE  OF  CAPITALISTS— MR. 
SPAULDING'S  LETTER  TO  SENATOR 
MORGAN— SHORT  COMINGS,  Etc. 
If  a  wretched  woman  enters  a  store  and  pur- 
loins a  pair  of  hose  to  keep  her  feet  from  freez- 
ing, or  a  loaf  of  bread  to  keep  her  children 
from  starvation,  the  merchant  is  excited,  the 
police  are  called,  and  he  will  attend  Court  sev- 
eral days,  spending  money  and  time,  to  have 
her  punished. 

If  a  farmer  encroaches  his  line  fence  but  a 
single  foot  on  his  neighbor's  farm,  judges 
juries  and  lawyers  are  called  into  requisition  at 
once,  his  anger  is  aroused,  and  he  will  expend 
hundreds,  and  perhaps  thousands  of  dollars,  to 
have  the  fence  removed. 

If  a  master  mechanic  attempts  to  reduce  the 
wages  of  his  workmen  five  or  ten  per  cent., 
there  is  a  fierce  opposition  immediately.-  The 
Trades  Unions  throughout  the  country  are  no- 


tified; they  extend  sympathy  and  aid,  and  a 
strike  is  inaugurated. 

But  when  it  is  known  that  the  capitalists  are 
concocting  measures  to  take  one-half  of  the 
merchant's  goods,  or  rather  to  reduce  the  price 
one-half,  which  amounts  to  precisely  the  same 
thing,  he  sits  in  his  store  stupidly  smoking  his 
cigar,  and  curses  the  Rebellion,  the  "  niggers ' 
and  the  Radicals,  and  allows  the  robbery  to 
proceed,  and  will  probably  vote  against  the 
''niggers"  at  the  next  election,  who  will,  if 
permitted,  cast  their  influence  and  votes  to  pro- 
tect the  interest  of  the  merchant.  The  debates 
in  the  Southern  Conventions  prove  that  the  col- 
ored men  have  a  clear  perception  that  their 
interests  are  closely  connected  with  the  trading 
and  industrial  classes,  and  that  they  can  and 
should  be  protected  by  legal  enactments. 

When  a  farmer  is  informed  by  the  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury  that  he  is  receiving  "  exorbi 
tant "  prices  for  his  produce,  and  that  prices 
should  be  reduced  ;  that  "  one  dollar  in  specie 
is  as  good  for  him  as  three  in  Treasury  notes," 
he  has  a  confused  idea  that  he  has  worked,  rain 
and  shine,  sixteen  hours  per  day,  for  which  he 
only  received  his  board  and  clothing,  and  has 
not  two  per  cent,  on  his  investment  in  land  and 
stock,  he  scratches  his  pate  and  declares  that 
he  never  can  understand  the  question  of  the 
finances,  and  consents  that  the  price  of  his  farm, 
stock,  tools,  and  crops,  be  reduced  from  50  to 
300  per  cent.,  and  makes  no  efifort  to  stop  the 
robber3^ 

He  understands  the  "  nigger  "  question  per- 
fectly. If  you  make  slaves  freemen,  you  con' 
vert  them  into  savages  ;  if  you  educate  them, 
and  allow  them  to  vote,  they  will  become  bar- 
barians ;  that  they  are  only  brutes,  and  can- 
not be  enlightened  and  civilized,  and  that  if 
five  hundred  thousand  of  them  are  allowed  to 
vote  they  will  rule  the  five  or  six  millions  of 
white  men,  and  destroy  the  country.  Upon 
this  subject  he  is  fully  posted,  but  cannot  com. 
prehend  whether  he  would  be  benefitted  by 
high  prices  or  not. 

The  Trades  Unions  and  mechanics  allow 
Andrew  Johnson  &  Co.,  by  contracting  the  cur- 
rency, to  reduce  the  wages  of  workmen  from 
15  to  45  per  cent.;  to  close  factories;  and  to 
suspend  improvements  and  deprive  hundreds  o 


THE  INCONSISTENCIES  OF  MERCHANTS,  FARMERS,  Etc. 


45 


thousands  of  people  of  work  and  food,  and 
make  no  sign  of  opposition.  The  workmen  of 
Cincinnati  are  an  honorable  exception.  They 
have  recently  elected  Gen,  Carey  to  Congress, 
to  protest  against  this  fraud  and  scheme  of  in- 
iquity. Tens  of  thousands  of  mechanics  are 
afraid  that  some  persons  will  suppose  "  that 
'  niggers '  are  as  good  as  white  men,"  not  re- 
flecting if  the  freedmen  can  by  any  means  be 
forced  to  work  for  low  wages  (as  the  capitalists 
intend  they  shall),  it  will  reduce  the  price  of 
all  labor  in  the  United  States  in  the  same  pro" 
portion  as  it  would  to  reduce  by  force  or  other- 
wise ^he  wages  of  six  or  seven  hundred  thou 
sand  of  white  men.  It  should  be  remembered 
that  the  diminution  of  prices  pats  it  out  of  the 
power  of  the  merchant,  the  farmer,  and  the  me- 
chanic, to  pay  their  obligations,  and  they  fail  ; 
meanwhile,  the  capitalist's  and  the  banker's 
money  is  increased  in  value  just  in  proportion 
as  its  purchasing  power  is  increased,  or  in  pro 
portion  to  the  decrease  in  the  value  of  mer- 
chandise, produce  and  labor.  The  capitalists 
are  idolized  for  their  wealth  and  success.  They 
are  solvent  men,  and  sport  costly  and  splendid 
equipages.  The  merchant  and  farmer  are  in- 
sulted for  their  poverty,  and  cursed  because 
they  are  unable  to  pay  their  debts,  and  are 
charged  with  rascality  or  ignorance,  or  of  id  le 
ness  and  extravagance,  and  with  all  sorts  of 
reasons  except  the  true  one. 

And  if  they  choose  to  avail  themselves  of  the 
bankrupt  law,  the  rich  editors  who  have  as 
sisted  in  the  work  of  their  destruction,  publish 
their  names  in  emblazoned  letters,  so  that  they 
shall  receive  and  feel  the  scorn  of  the  world  ; 
and  that  their  wives,  sons  and  daughters  may 
participate  their  fall  share  in  their  fathers'  dis- 
grace. Thousands  of  honorable  and  sensitive 
men  would  take  the  benefit  of  the  act,  but  are 
deterred  by  feelings  of  respect  for  their  fami- 
lies, and  the  dread  of  fresh  and  insulting  hu. 
miliation.  If  the  Southern  freedmen  make  no 
better  use  of  the  elective  franchise  than  the 
classes  we  have  referred  to,  and  are  as  stupid 
in  regard  to  their  own  interests,  they  will  de- 
serve to  be  disfranchised.  The  use  of  the  bal- 
lot is  only  a  farce  if  it  is  not  used  so  as  to 
benefit  the  masses,  the  industrial  and  produc- 
ing classes  of  society.  We  expect  that  this  pam- 


phlet will,  like  those  that  have  preceded  it,  be 
severely  criticised  and  called  "  agrarian,"  etc.  ; 
but  as  we  write  for  neither  money  or  fame» 
if  it  assists  to  correct  public  opinion  on  the 
financial  question,  we  shall  be  satisfied  ;  but 
we  assure  the  reader  who  supposes  we  are  too 
Radical,  if  you  judge  us  from  a  stand-point  a 
few  years  in  the  future,  we  are  only  a  weak 
Conservative. 

The  Hon.  Mr.  Spaulding,  in  his  recent  letter 
to  Senator  Morgan,  says  that  the  moment  that 
the  Government  is  enabled  by  contraction  to 
resume  specie  payments,  "  nearly  all  the  com- 
plicated and  disturbing  issues"  will  be  dis- 
posed of.  There  was  never  a  greater  mistake. 
Senator  Morgan,  in  his  speech  at  Cooper  Insti- 
tute, in  which  he  said,  speaking  of  the  Treas- 
ury notes,  "The  people  have  become  accus- 
tomed to,  and  to  some  extent,  satisfied  with 
them,"  showed  that  his  discernment  was  keener 
than  that  of  of  his  friend  Mr.  Spaulding. 

The  principal  reason  why  the  capitalists 
have  been,  and  are,  in  such  haste  to  destroy 
the  Government  money  is,  that  they  fear  that 
the  people  will  learn  that  their  Government 
can  create  money,  and  thereby  reduce  the  rate 
of  interest,  and  therefore  are  not  under  the 
necessity  of  borrowing  from  the  usurers  at 
high  rates.  We  can  assure  these  gentlemen, 
the  public,  having  tested  the  matter  to  their 
satisfaction,  it  will  be  impossible  to  impose  the 
theory  of  the  Bullionists  on  them  hereafter. 

We,  being  conservative  on  the  financial 
question  and  extremely  liberal,  have  fixed  the 
rate  the  nation  should  pay  at  three  per  cent, 
per  annum,  but  within  a  very  few  years  the 
people  will  learn  that  one  per  cent,  is  all  that 
can  be  justly  and  reasonably  asked  for  the  use 
of  money,  and  will  demand  that  Congress  re- 
duce the  rate  to  that  figure. 

The  institution  of  slavery  has  been  a  colossal 
fortification  blocking  the  road  to  reform  and 
national  progress  :  having  been  removed,  the 
people  are  marching  on  over  the  other  slight 
barriers,  which  will  be  trampled  in  the  dust 
and  swept  away  by  the  political  hurricanes  of 
social  progress,  that  are  already  discernible, 
rising  in  the  political  heavens. 

The  people  of  Massachusetts  are  demanding 
that  the  State  take  possession  of  the  railroads 


OUR  NATIONAL  FINANCES. 


for  the  benefit  of  the  people.  The  railroad 
company  took  the  citizens'  houses,  gardens  and 
farms  for  the  good  of  tlie  public,  and  if  it  is  a 
public  benefit  they  sliould  be  compelled,  on 
payment,  to  rescind  their  privileges  and  prop- 
erty. 

The  people  of  Boston,  through  her  Com- 
mon Council,  have  applied  to  the  Legislature 
for  the  privilege  of  manufacturing  and  supply- 
ing the  public  with  gas  at  cost.  This  indi. 
cates  that  enlightened  communities  are  begin- 
ning to  comprehend  the  great  cardinal  doctrine 
that  governments  are  instituted  for  the  benefit 
of  the  governed,  and  not  for  the  purpose  of  cre- 
ating and  sustaining  odious  and  oppressive 
monopolies. 

Imagine,  for  a  moment,  what  a  holy  horror 
would  seize  the  Old  Money  Bags  of  New  York 
if  there  should  be  a  serious  proposition  to 
supersede  the  Manhattan  Gas  Company.  How 
eloquently  they  would  declaim  about  the  honor 
of  the  St;!te,  and  the  intelligence  of  the  stupid 
old  Dutchman,  who,  near  a  century  ago,  grant- 
ed a  perpetual  charter  to  that  corporation.  The 
last  quotations  of  this  stock  was  about  $300  for 
$50  shares,  and  is  now  out  of  sight,  excepting 
wlien  some  old  gentleman  dies  and  it  is  forced 
to  be  sold  to  settle  his  estate.  We  wish  we 
knew  how  many  times  and  to  what  extent  this 
stock  has  been  watered. 

In  recent  congresses  of  European  reformers 
they  have  proposed  and  discussed  the  proposi- 
tion "  That  the  furnishing  of  credit  was  a  mat- 
ter with  which  the  State  alone  should  deal." 
This  is  laying  the  ax  at  the  root  of  the  tree. 
We  give  these  few  signs — they  might  be 
largely  multiplied — to  prove  that  we  are  con- 
servative, and  that  the  measures  we  propose 
are  not  up  to  the  advanced  thought  of  earnest 
and  able  men,  who  will  soon  control  the  mul- 
titudes of  people. 

USURY,  THE  CURSE  OF  CIVILIZATION, 
BUT  ESPECIALLY  OF  THE  NINE- 
TEENTH CENTURY— THE  PRICE  OF 
MONEY— DESCRIPTION  OF  CAPITAL- 
ISTS, Etc.— GENERAL  GRANT— THE 
REPUBLICAN  CONGRESS. 
The  most  gigantic  evil,  that  has  ever  afflicted 

humanity,  more  blighting  in  its  effects  than 


famine,  pestilence  and  war,  is  usury.  It  is 
condemned  by  the  Old  and  New  Testaments, 
and  placed  in  the  calendars  of  the  greatest 
sins  and  crimes,  and  has  been  denounced  by 
all  righteous  law  makers  since  Moses.  It  is  the 
only  crime  inherited  from  barbarous  ages,  that 
is  countenanced  by  civilization.  Good  men,  and 
the  statutes  of  civilized  States,  have  attempted 
to  provide  for  its  restriction  and  punishment, 
but  it  has  corrupted  legislators,  preachers  and 
juries.  The  riches  of  its  votaries,  who  are 
the  money  kings  of  Christendom,  awe  the  j  udge 
on  the  bench,  the  minister  in  the  pulpit,  and  the 
representatives  in  parliaments,  councils  and 
congresses.  It  is  the  cause  of  more  want,  crime 
and  prostitution  than  all  other  causes  combined. 
It  is  the  most  prolific  source  of  sickness,  disease 
and  death  generated  by  poverty,  destitution 
and  exposure,  the  results  of  the  exactions  of 
usurers.  It  transfers  the  life-blood  of  the 
nations  into  the  coffers  of  the  great  capitalists, 
who,  after  destroying  men  singly,  but  by 
millions,  project  devices — governmental  laws 
— to  destroy  and  virutually  enslave  them  by 
billions. 

The  kings  that  oppress  the  most  crually  are 
not  the  Popes,  Emperors,  Kings  and  Queens, 
that  occupy  the  thrones  of  Europe.  Thank 
Heaven !  only  one,  is  permitted  to  reign  at  a 
time.  But  the  Money  Kings,  of  whom  there 
are  several  thousand  in  every  country,  are 
continually  destroying  the  substance  and  lives 
of  the  populations  and  depriving  them  of  the 
usefulness  and  pleasures  of  existence,  and 
indirectly  but  certainly  filling  millions  and 
tens  of  millions  of  premature  graves  because 
their  occupants  have  been  stinted  and  op- 
pressed by  poverty  and  its  attendant  evils. 

The  money  gathered  to  pay  the  interest  for 
the  public  debt  by  the  Government  of  Great 
Britain,  although  the  rate  of  interest  is  only 
three  percent,  has  concentrated  the  wealth  of 
the  kingdom  in  the  hands  of  a  few  persons,  and 
the  result  is,  a  bloated  aristocracy,  boundless 
wealth  and  extravagance,  and  abject  besotted 
poverty,  ignorance  and  crime.  There  are  a 
few  hundred  millionaires,  a  few  thousand  of 
"the  middling  classes,"  and  millions  of  paupers, 
and  the  middling  classes  are  continully  faster 
and  faster  swept  into  the  vortex  of  bankruptcy. 


USURY,  THE  CURSE  OF  CIVILIZATION,  Etc. 


47 


Dissatisfaction,  bread  riots,  and  bloodshed,  are  } 
becoming  more  and  more  frequent.  The  people  | 
are  clamoring  for  reform — manhood  suffrage 
which  is  worthless  unless  used  to  protect  the 
people  from  the  usurers — to  supply  them  with 
labor,  and  with  a  reasonable  and  just  compen- 
sation for  the  same. 

Great  Britain,  and  she  is  truly  great  in 
many  respects,  with  a  history  of  magnificent 
triumphs,  in  peace  and  war,  in  literature  and 
art,  with  her  glorious  Magna  Charta,  and 
thousands  of  free  churches  and  charitable 
institutions,  with  thousands  and  tens  of  thou- 
sands of  devout  Christians,  beseeching  Heaven 
to  save  their  country,  yet  the  most  sanguine 
hope  for  no  solution  of  her  danger  and  difficul- 
ties but  by  the  terrible  alternative,  revolution. 

There  is  but  a  single  avenue  of  escape  to 
avert  her  day  of  doom.  And  it  is  improbable 
that  her  capitalists  and  nobles  will  heed  it. 
For  covetousness  is  the  strongest  of  all  passions. 
Happy  for  England,  if  enlightened  legislation 
or  suffrage  legally  and  peacefully  compel  her 
Money  Kings  to  pay  from  their  enormous 
incomes  and  hoards  of  wealth  the  principal 
portion  of  the  expenses  of  her  government, 
including  the  interest  on  the  public  debt. 
The  situation  of  Great  Britain  presents  a  study 
and  warning  to  the  people  and  statesmen  of 
the  United  States, 

To  show  the  increase  of  money  from  the  ex- 
orbitant rates  of  interest,  we  quote  a  chapter 
from  a  work  written  by  Edward  Kellogg,  and 
published  in  New  York  in  1849.  We  believe 
this  author  had  a  clearer  view  of  the  pliilosophy 
of  finance,  the  nature,  use,  and  qualities  of 
money,  than  any  other  man  that  has  ever 
written  upon  the  subject.  This  book,  which  is 
scarcely  known,  should  be  in  every  library, 
school  and  family  in  the  United  States.  The 
chapter  is  curious  and  worthy  of  serious  con- 
sideration.   It  reads: 

Interest  on  money  at  six  per  cent,  per  an- 
num, payable  half  yearly,  will  double  the  prin- 
cipal in  eleven  years,  eight  months  and  twen- 
ty-one days ;  but  for  convenience,  we  will  call 
it  twelve  years.  One  thousand  dollars  loaned 
at  six  per  cent,  in  twelve  years  will  accumu- 
late to  $2,000  ;  iu  twenty -four  years  to  $4,000 ; 
in  twenty-six  years  to  $8,000;  in  forty-eight 


years  to  $1G,.000  ;  in  sixty  years  to  $36,000  ;  in 
seventy-two  years  to  $64,000  ;  in  eighty-four 
years  to  $128,000 ;  in  ninety-six  years  to  $256,- 

000  ;  in  one  hundred  and  eight  years  to  $512,- 
000;  in  one  hundred  and  twenty  years  to 
$1,024,000.  Multiply  this  sum  by  1,024  and  it 
will  give  the  accumulation  for  one  hundred 
and  twenty  years  more  $1,0241 ,000;  multiplied  by 
1,024  equals  $1,048,576,000.  Multiply  this  pro- 
duct by  1,024  and  we  shall  have  the  accumula- 
tion during  the  next  one  hundred  and  twenty 
years  or,  for  a  period  of  three  hundred  and  sixty 
years  $1,048,576,000  by  1,024,  $1,073,741,824,000 
The  rate  of  interest  on  money  at  one  per  cent., 
payable  half-yearly,  will  double  the  principal 
in  about  sixty-nine  years  and  a  half ;  but,  for 
convenience,  we  will  call  it  seventy  years.  One 
thousand  dollars  loaned  at  one  per  cent,  in 
seventy  years  will  accumulate  to  $2,000 ;  in 
one  hundred  and  forty  years  to  $4,000 ;  in  two 
hundred  and  ten  years  to  $8,000  ;  in  one  hun- 
dred and  eighty  years  to  $16,000;  in  three 
hundred  and  fifty  years  to  $32,000  ;  or,  in  three 
hundred  and  sixty  years  to  say  $37,574. 

Deduct  $37,554  from  the  accumulation  on 
$1,000  at  six  per  cent,  during  the  three  hun- 
dred and  sixty  years,  i.  e.,  $36,574  from 
$1,073,741,824,000  and  the  remainder  is  $1,- 
073,741,786,426,  which  sum  a  rate  of  inter- 
est of  six  per  cent,  on  $1,000  will  accumulate 
over  and  above  the  sum  accumulated  by  a  rate 
of  interest  of  one  per  cent,  on  the  same  sum 
during  a  period  of  three  hundred  and  sixty 
years.  One  dollar  loaned  at  six  per  cent,  per 
annum,  the  interest  collected  and  reloanedlialf 
yearly  for  a  period  of  three  hundred  and  sixty 
years  will  accumulate  the  sum  of  $1,073,741,824, 
while  the  same  dollar,  loaned  at  one  percent., 
and  the  interest  collected  and  reloaned  in  the 
same  manner  for  the  same  period,  will  accumu- 
late little  more  than  $37.  One  dollar  loaned 
at  six  per  cent,  interest  per  annum  for  a  period 
of  three  hundred  and  sixty  years,  would  accu- 
mulate more  than  double  the  assessed  value  of 
the  whole  State  of  New  York.  The  legal  in- 
terest in  the  State  of  New  York  is  seven  per 
cent.,  and  one  dollar  loaned  at  this  rate  for 
!  three  hundred  and  sixty  years,  would  accumu- 

1  late  a  greater  sum  than  tho  ViUuation  of  th» 
i  whole  United  States, 


I 


43 


OUR  NATIONAL  FINANCES. 


Suppose  a  foi»eign  nation  should  lend  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  $100,000  at 
seven  per  cent.,  on  condition  that  our  Govern- 
ment should  give  her  bond  half  yearly  for  the 
payment  of  the  interest,  and  the  sum  should 
accumulate  for  a  term  of  three  hundred  and 
sixty  years,  however  prosperous  the  people 
might  be  at  the  expiration  of  the  period,  the 
whole  property  of  the  nation  would  not  pay 
the  debt.  At  seven  per  cent,  interest  the  debt 
would  double  in  about  ten  years.  In  three 
hundred  and  sixty  years,  $100,000  loaned  at 
seven  per  cent,  interest  per  annum,  would 
amount  to  $6,971,947,673,600,000,  a  much 
larger  sum  than  the  valuation  of  the  property 
of  the  whole  world.  These  calculations  make 
it  evident  that  six  and  seven  per  cent,  interest 
cannot,  and  ought  not,  to  be  paid  by  any 
nation. 

We  will  make  a  calculation  of  interest  at  three 
per  cent,  per  annum  paid  and  reloaned  half- 
yearly  as  in  the  former  calculation.  If  the 
United  States  should  borrow  from  England 
$100,000  at  three  per  cent,  interest,  take  up  her 
bonds  every  six  months  and  give  new  bonds, 
adding  in  the  interest,  the  debt  would  be 
doubled  in  about  twenty-three  and  a  half 
years  ;  but  allow  it  to  double  in  twenty-four 
years  and  the  $100,000  would  accumulate  in 
three  himdred  and  sixty  years  to  $3,276,800,- 
000.  The  annual  interest  on  this  sum  at  three 
per  cent,  would  be  $98,304,000.  The  y€>arly 
payment  of  this  sum  of  interest  would  be 
caused  by  merely  borrowing  $100,000  for  a 
period  of  three  hundred  and  sixty  years  at  three 
per  cent,  per  annum,  adding  the  interest  to  the 
principal  every  six  months.  This  enormous 
debt  would  be  occasioned  by  the  accumulative 
power  of  interest  which  it  requires  the  products 
of  labor  to  satisfy  and  pay. 

Suppose,  when  Virginia  was  settled  in  1607, 
England  had  sold  to  the  first  settlers  the  whole 
United  States  for  $1,000  and  had  taken  amort- 
gage  for  this  sum,  covering  the  whole  property, 
instead  of  paying  the  interest  yearly  at  seven 
per  cent.,  the  settlers  agree  to  take  up  these 
bonds  at  the  end  of  six  months  and  add  in  the 
interest ;  allow  the  $1,000  and  the  accruing  in 
terest  to  remain  outstanding  until  1850  and  then 
to  become  due,  although  the  prosperity  of  the 


nation  has  far  surpassed  that  of  any  other,  yet 
its  property  of  every  description  would  not  pay 
the  debt.  The  interest  would  double  the  prin- 
cipal in  ten  years  and  one  month.  In  one 
hundred  years  and  ten  months  the  debt  would 
amount  to  $1,024,000 ;  in  two  hundred  and  one 
years  and  eight  months  to  $1,048,576,000  ;  add 
forty  years  and  four  months  to  1859,  and  the 
sum  would  amount  to  $16,777,216,000. 

All  the  interest  which  would  have  accumu- 
lated upon  the  $1,000  would  not  have  in- 
creased the  quantity  of  money  or  the  prop- 
erty of  the  nation.  All  the  increase  of  the 
value  of  the  property  would  have  been  added 
by  the  labor  of  the  people ;  but  all  of  these  sur- 
plus earnings  have  not  equalled  the  legal  ac- 
cumulation at  seven  per  cent,  interest  on 
$1,000  during  this  period.  The  Southern  and 
Western  States  depend  upon  the  yearly  pro- 
ducts of  their  labor  for  their  wealth.  They 
are  greatly  impoverished  by  the  amount  of  in- 
terest that  they  are  compelled  to  pay  to  our 
Eastern  and  Northern  cities  for  the  use  of 
money.  A  very  large  amount  of  the  stocks  of 
Western  banks  and  a  large  amount  of  Western 
and  Southern  State  bonds  are  owned  by  capi- 
talists in  the  Northern  cities  and  by  foreigners. 
The  interest  on  these  is  constantly  transferring 
the  earnings  of  the  people  of  these  States  to  a 
few  capitalists  in  the  large  cities  or  in  foreign 
nations.  All  this  would  be  avoided  by  the  es- 
tablishment of  proper  monetary  laws  in  our 
own  nation.  The  Government  should  furnish 
money  by  making  a  representative  of  the  prop- 
erty of  applicants  in  their  own  States,  and  no 
State  should  be  compelled  to  pay  to  other 
States  or  nations,  millions  of  dollars  worth  of 
products  yearly  for  a  representative  of  their 
property."  It  is  not  singular  that  an  author 
who  wrote  in  this  vein  was  unpopular  in  New 
York. 

The  public  debt  of  the  United  States,  is,  in 
round  numbers  $2,500,000,000.  The  question 
is,  when,  and  in  what  manner  shall  it,  or  can  it, 
be  paid. 

There  is  a  strife  to  hasten  the  period,  when 
the  whole  amount  shall  be  represented  in 
bonds,  the  interest  of  which  is  to  be  paid  in 
gold.  As  soon  as  this  is  accomplished,  the 
annual  amount  of  interest  to  be  raised  will  be 


USURY,  THE  CURSE  OF  CIVILIZATION,  Etc. 


49 


$150,000,000.     The  most  tlioughtful  of  the 
men,  who  have  been  urging  contraction  of  the 
currency,  and  the  issue  of  gold  bearing  bonds, 
and  the  payment  annually  of  a  large  amount  j 
of  the  principal,  begin  to  realize  the  impossi- 
bility of  the  plan,  and  now  propose  to  fund  the  ! 
debt  into  long  bonds,  and  reduce  the  taxes  to  a  j 
sum  just  sufficient  to  pay  the  interest  on  them  | 
and  the  ordinary  expenses  of  the  Government,  ' 
reducing  the  latter  to  the   lowest  possible 
amount.  i 

There  is,  provided  the  people  would  consent,  a 
probability  that  the  scheme  could  be  worked. 
Bat  when  the  people  learn  that  it  involves  ' 
raising  by  taxation  a  sum  equal  to  the  entire  : 
debt  every  eleven  years,  and  mil  not  reduce  the  ! 
principal  a  single  dime,  they  tcill  not  consent  to 
sustain  such  an  eternal  monstrous  incubus 
and  fraud,  and  it  is  preposterous  to  ask  them  ' 
to  do  so.  1 

The  net  wealth  of  the  United  States  exceeds 
that  of  any  other  nation  in  the  world.  We 
have  a  larger  amount  of  productive  real  estate, 
more  miles  of  railroads,  canals,  telegraphs,  j 
and  our  inland  navigation  surpasses  that  of  all  \ 
Europe.  \ 

Our  coal  fields  and  mineral  wealth  are  inex-  : 
haustible,  and  of  such  vast  extent  as  to  defy  i 
enumeration  in  dollars.    And  with  wise  legis- 
lation, our  Government  can  pay  all  legal  and 
just  demands,  or  fund  them  into  thirty-year 
3-per-cent.  bonds.    If  the  policy  of  the  con- 
tractionists  is  adopted,  it  practically  prohibits 
the  Government  and  people  from  utilizing 
only  a  moiety  of  these  immense  deposits  of 
wealth  which,  must  lie  dormant  for  want  of  ; 
means  to  develop  them.  i 

Our  object  from  the  first  has  been  to  impress  ' 
upon  the  minds  of  the  people  if  possible,  that 
to  utilize  this  enormous  wealth,  the  Govern-  J 
mentmust  furnish  a  circulating  mt  dium  based  | 
upon  the  whole  property  of  the  country,  includ.  \ 
ing  Qovernraent  bonds  and  gold  and  silver,  j 
in  sufilcient  amounts  to  supply  all  legitimate  de-  i 
mands,  was  what  the  welfare  of  the  people  and  ' 
the  best  interests  of  the  Government  require. 
To  exhibit  the  folly  and  poverty  of  the  argu- 
ments,that  attempted  to  prove  that  the  Treasury  : 
notes  were  "  not  dollars,"  by  shovdng  the  obvi-  ' 


ous  truth  that  the  entire  wealth  and  capital 
within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  United  States  was 
pledged  for  them,  and  could  be  taxed  and  sold 
should  it  become  necessary  to  redeem  them, 
other  than  redeeming  them,  as  at  present, 
by  receiving  them  for  revenue,  land,  taxes, 
etc.  In  one  of  our  previous  communications 
we  wrote  the  following  paragraphs :  Two 
years  of  reflection,  the  situation  of  the  finan- 
ces and  the  country  has  convinced  us  that  our 
recommendations  were  judicious,  and  we  re- 
produce them,  and  desire  the  statements  may 
be  well  considered,  for  we  are  certain  they  are 
of  the  highest  importance. 
We  wrote  as  follows  : 

The  Destructionists  declare  that  this  wealth 
is  only  "  a  delusion  and  snare  ;"  that  this  money 
was  used  only  as  an  experiment  during  a  con- 
tingency. It  certainly  created  real  ships — 
equipped  and  paid  a  real  army  ;  it  has  erected 
tens  of  thousands  of  real  houses,  etc.  ;  and  the 
assessors,  upon  oath,  make  returns  of  thousands 
of  millions  of  dollars  in  value  added  to  the 
wealth  of  the  country  since  the  issue  of  Gov- 
ernment money.  The  poverty  of  their  argu- 
ment is  discovered  when  they  argue  that,  be- 
cause a  great  improvement  is  invented  by  ac- 
cident, it,  therefore,  should  not  be  used,  but  be 
destroyed. 

To  properly  encourage  trade,  manufacture, 
commerce,  and  assist,  the  Southern  States  to  re- 
build their  waste  places,  and  cultivate  their 
idle  plantations,  and  stimulate  the  immense 
agricultural  interest  of  the  whole  country,  pro- 
mote public  and  private  improvements,  requires 
the  issue  and  use  of  at  least  the  sum  of  one 
thousand  millions  of  Treasury  notes.  The  use 
of  this  amount  would  save  the  Government 
sixty  millions  of  dollaes  annually — a 
sum  sufficient  to  liquidate  the  entire 
National  debt  in  about  fifteen  yeaes. 
Issue  this  sum  and  the  rate  of  interest  will  fall 
from  six  to  three  per  cent.,  all  that  money  is 
really  worth,  or  any  nation  or  the  people  can 
afford  to  pay.  This  would  enormously  reduce 
the  public  burden.  Issue  one  thousand  mil- 
lions of  legal-tender  Treasury  notes,  and  our 
interest-paying  debt  would  amount  to  only  fif- 
teen hundred^millions.  With  interest  at  six 
per  cent.,  ninety  millions  would  be  required  to 
pay  the  annual  interest ;  at  three  per  cent., 
forty-five  millions  of  dollars.  Can  any  honest 
sane  man  deny,  that  if  money  could  be  obtained 
at  three  or  three-and-a-half  per  cent.,  that  it 
would  not  enormously  increase  the  number  of 
houses,  steamers,  railroads,  etc..  and  conse- 
quently the  prosperity  and  wealth  of  tlie  Na- 
tion ?  'Allow  the  buUionists  and  Destructionists 
to  fully  inaugurate  their  policy,  and  the  people 


50 


OUR  NATIONAL  FINANCES. 


will  be  called  upon  to  pay  tlie  interest  on  twenty-  mode  to  square  accounts  with  Napoleon  for  lii3 
five  hundred  millions  of  dollars  in  gold,  or  one  [  base  attempt  to  destroy  republicanism  on  this 
hundred  and  fifty  millions  jier  annum  instead  continent. 

of  forty  five  millions.  The  Destructionists  howl  i  With  tico  hundred  millions  gold  in  theTrea- 
in  answer,  it  "  will  inflate  prices^  Statesmen  |  sury,  one  thousand  millions  of  Goverumeni 
answer  this  plain  question.  Is  it  the  wiser  plan  ■  money  could  or  can  be  kept  in  circulation  ;  and 
to  reduce  the  price  and  value  of  all  the  prop-  with  the  aid  of  a  properly-adjusted  tariff,  the 
erty  in  the  country  from  fifty  to  one  hundred  \  gold  could  or  can  be  kept  at  liome  and  the  Trea- 
per  cent.,  than  to  it  to  an  equal  amount,  i  sury  notes  kept  at  par  in  all  sections  of  the 

especially  as  the  reduction  in  the  value  of  prop-  ;  Union,  and  in  all  of  the  princijjal  cities  on  the 
erty  would  more  than  double  the  amount  of  in-  ,  globe.  The  taxes  can  be  greatly  reduced,  and 
tei'est  to  be  collected  from  the  people?  The  man  '  the  people  of  this  country,  who  are  at  the  pre- 
that  answers  or  votes  in  the  affirmative  is  unfit  I  sent  time,  in  consequence  of  the  free  circulation 
to  represent  a  free  people,  either  as  Senator  or  i  of  paper  money,  the  most  prosperous  of  any  on 
Congressman.  These  propositions  are  of  such  j  the  earth,  can  be  lifted  to  a  higher  degree  of 
vast  and  vital  importance,  and  so  plain,  that  the  j  prosperity  and  glory  than  has  ever  been  wit- 
people  are  certain  to  respond  to  tliem  correctly,  nessed  since  human  governments  were  insti- 
forthe  subtleties  of  the  Destructionists  are  van-  |  tuted. 

ishing  before  the  experience  of  the  past  four  ,  Perhaps  some  will  qaestion  these  statements, 
years.  j  and  repeat  the  old  falsehoods,  that  the  Govern 

If  it  is  inquired,  when  you  would  have  the  j  ment  was  obliged  to  issue  gold-bearing  bonds 
money  redeemed  ?  we  answer,  the  Government  !  in  order  to  have  its  loans  taken  and  obtain 
are  continually  redeeming  it  at  the  rate  of  more  ;  funds  to  prosecute  the  war.  Answer.  The 
than  a  million  of  dollars  per  day;  and  every  '  United  States  Government,  after  it  had  issued 
man  in  the  United  States  stands  ready  to  re-  the  first  200  millions  of  paper  money,  had  the 
deem  it,  by  gladly  exchanging  any  property  he  ;  finances  of  the  Nation  as  completely  under  its 
has  for  it ;  no  one  requires  or  wishes  gold  for  ;  control  as  it  had  the  Army  and  Navy.  The  mo- 
it,  except  a  few  Ballionists  and  the  foreign  ;  ment  the  State  banks  suspended  the  payment 
merchants  who  wish  to  ship  it  to  Europe.  The  \  of  their  notes  in  gold  and  silver,  they  had  no 
Destructionists— the  men  that  howl  the  loudest  I  legal  or  moral  right  to  complain;  and  the 
anddeclare  that  Treasury  notes  are  only ''trash,"  ;  financial  power  they  previously  possessed,  and 
are  "  not  money,"  etc. — are  the  most  anxious  to  '  with  which  they  vainly  attempted  to  coerce  the 
redeem  it  by  selling  tiieir  bi^st  goods  and  wares,  |  Government,  fled  away  with  the  few  millions 
and  take  it  in  payment.  We  know  some  very  of  specie  in  their  vaults,  and,  happily,  forced 
able  and  eloquent  editors  who  exhaust  the  them,  in  order  to  save  themselves,  to  become 
whole  vocabulary  of  vile  epithets  in  denounc-  ,  co-workers  with  the  people  to  save  the  Union, 
ing  it,  yet  they  resort  to  all  legitimate  efforts  They  became  servants  instead  of  dictators, 
to  exchange  their  papers  for  it,  and  at  the  most  i  It  is  true  our  bonds  could  not  have  been 
reasonable  rates ;  and  we  are  not  surprised  ;  i  negotiated  in  the  European  markets  unless  the 
for  that  which  this  truly  great,  rich  and  ^irtuous  interest  was  payable  in  gold  ;  and  this  was  why 
nation  coins  or  stamj^s  is  and  no  mistake.  ^  the  interest  ought  to  be  paid  in  United  States 

We  are  aware  that  it  will  not  readily  pass  in    currency,  to  prevent  them  from  being  purchased 
Europe— neither  will  our  coin  pass  at  par  beyond   in  vast  quantities  below  par  by  Eiiropeans. 
our  own  dominions;  but  this  is  no  proof  that       Tlie  greatest  objection  made  to  this  beneficent 
they  are  not  good  and  valid  in  the  United  j  legislation  is,  that  it  will  increase  the  price 
States.  i  OF  GOLD.    No  nation  or  people  was  ever  in- 

It  is  as  certain  as  truth,  that  if  the  United  \  jured  by  legislation  that  increased  the  value  of 
States  Treasury  had  retained  (as  it  should  and  the  property  and  labor  of  the  country.  And  if 
could  have  done)  the  principal  portion  of  the  the  price  of  gold  should  suddenly  be  increased 
500  millions  of  dollars  of  gold  it  has  received  one  hundred  per  cent.,  the  Government,  which 
into  its  vaults — and  promptly  shipped  the  cotton  ■  holds  the  principal  portion  of  the  gold  in  the 
and  other  Southern  staples  that  were  taken  from  country,  could,  provided  it  was  sold,  be  bene- 
the  Rebels,  both  of  these  monster  monopolies —  fitted  to  the  extent  of  the  amount  of  the  pre- 
the  Bank  of  England  and  France — would  have  mium  received.  And  if  our  importations  are 
been  obliged  to  suspend  payments  of  specie;  excessive,  as  some  allege,  it  would  retard  them, 
and  the  United  States  Government  would  have  and  stimulate  exports  of  grain,  butter  cheese, 
been  at  the  present  time  the  Grand  Master  of  meat  lumber,  etc.,  as  it  did  in  the  years  of  18G3 
the  Financial  World,  and  the  old  6  per  cent,  and  1863,  when  the  premium  was  at  the  high- 
gold-bearing  bonds  would  be  selling  at  100  per  est.  The  premium  on  gold  is  also  a  premium 
cent  premium,  and  the  principal  portion  of  to  the  farmers,  and  allows  them  to  more  than 
public  debt  funded  in  long  bonds  drawing  only  compete  with  the  agriculturists  of  other  conn- 
s' per  cent.,  and  these  would  have  been  quoted  tries,  and  the  premium  on  gold  is  eqtial  to  a 
above  par.  This  was  the  correct  method  to  !  tarifiF  of  the  >ame  per  cent,  or  importations, 
settle  with  England  for  her  piracies,  and  the   We  are  aware  that  this  proposition  is  vigor- 


USURY,  THE  CURSE  OF  CIVILTZATIOX,  Etc. 


51 


ously  denied,  but  is  a  stubborn  fact  nevertlie-  ' 
less.*   It  increases  the  prices  of  foreign  goods, 
as  does  a  tariff. 

Senators  and  Congressmen,  please  remember 
that  liigh  jy  rices  for  every  thing  or  article  made 
by  human  hands,  is  a  benefit.  Labor,  and  the 
produce  of  labor,  vvhether  it  is  the  product  of 
manual  or  intellectual,  requires  to  be  prosper- 
ous and  healthy  to  command  high  prices  The 
only  cheap  thi/tg  or  article  that  is  required  for 
the  happiness  of  the  people  of  the  United  States 
is  cheap  money.  Lo'.v  prices  is  a  curse  to  the 
laborers,  farmnrs,  mechanics,  artisans,  manufac- 
turers, merchants,  etc. 

If  the  manufacturers,  or  the  Governments  of 
England  and  France,  would  contract  and  agree 
to  furnish  the  whole  population  of  the  United 
States  for  the  next  ten  years  with  all  the  hats, 
boots,  shoes,  clothing,  tools,  etc.,  f  ree  of  cost,  it 
would  viestroy  the  prosperity  of  the  people  and 
bankrupt  the  Government.  High  prices  is  the 
inducement  of  labor — it  is  the  incentive  and 
reward  of  industry  that  stimulates  and  increases 
production. 

It  is  charged  that  high  prices,  caused  by  the 
issue  of  paper  money,  has  demoralized  the  peo- 
ple of  the  United  States.  This  is  afoul,  malic- 
ious slander.  The  people  of  tiiis  country,  dinging 
the  reign  of  paper  money,  were  never  'jefore  so 
wise,  brave,  patriotic,  industrious,  charitable, 
and  virtuous  as  they  were  during  and  since  the 
war,  and  this  is  triumphantly  proved  by  the 
statistics  of  building,  of  manufactures,  of  the 
issue  of  patents,  of  agriculture,  etc.,  as  well  as 
by  their  patriotic  course  in  sustaining  the 
Union  and  freedom  and  the  Union  Party.  It 
it  is  a  foul  and  wicked  slander  to  say  that  the 
people  are  demoralized.  It  is  only  the  Usurers 
and  Destructionists  who  are  demoralized. 

Tliese  Destructionists  are  continually  de- 
claiming for  "economy,"  and  oppose  every  ap- 
propriation for  public  improvements,  etc.,  but 
constantly  vote  to  pay  the  highest  rates  for  the 
interest  of  money.  Tens  of  millions  of  dollars 
in  specie  are  given  to  men  who  never  furnished 
the  Government  a  single  ounce  of  gold.  They 
are  in  great  haste  to  have  the  obligations  that 
are  payable  in  currency,  and  those  drawing  no 
interest,  put  into  gold-bearing  bonds,  and  any 
proposition  that  tends  to  reauce  the  price  of 
money,  or  the  rate  of  interest,  is  an  abomination 
in  their  sight. 

One  thousand  millions  is  not  one  dollar  in  ex- 
cess of  what  the  people  of  this  Nation  absolute- 
ly require  to  properly  cultivate  their  lands,  to 
make  necessary  improvements,  and  conduct  the 
business  of  the  United  States. 

There  are  3,000,000  of  farmers  and  planters 
who  do  not  keep  bank  accounts,  and  who  re- 
quire to  keep  on  hand,  on  an  average,  §200 
each— $600,000,000. 

There  are  2,000,000  of  mechanics,  small 
traders,  etc.,  who  require,  on  an  average,  $100 
each— $200,000,000. 


Then  there  are  tens  of  thousands  of  mer- 
chants, manufacturers.  Insurance  Companies, 
Steaniboai,  Railroad  and  Canal  Companies, 
Bankers  and  Banks,  etc.,  who  require  other 
hundreds  of  millions  of  a  circulating  medium  ; 
and,  at  the  very  least,  all  these  interests  com- 
bined, require  the  round  sum  of  one  thousand 
millions  of  dollars  to  make  their  purchases  and 
exchanges  ;  and  what  good  and  sound  reason  is 
there  why  the  Government,  which  is  so  heavily 
in  debt,  should  not  have  the  immense  profit  of 
sixty  'millions  of  dollars  per  annum,  equal,  at 
the  present  rate  of  gold,  to  ninety  millions  of 
dollars.  For  supplying  these  business  facilities, 
in  some  respects  paper  money  is  better  than  gold. 
If  gold  is  destroyed  by  fire  or  in  the  sea,  it  is 
lost.  If  a  paper  dollar  is  lost  or  destroyed,  the 
Government  debt  to  an  equal  amount  is  re- 
duced, etc.  This  sitm  is  not  too  large.  It  is 
curious  that  the  only  individuals  who  will  dis- 
imtethis  indisputable  fact  are  men  who  keep  on 
hand  from  $25,000  to  $1,000,000  to  "operate" 
with. 

We  do  not  expect  to  convince  men  who  are 
blinded  by  avarice,  mammon,  or  self-interest,  of 
the  wisdom  of  this  policy  ;  but  we  do  expect 
that  all  fair,  candid,  intelligent  statesmen,  who 
love  their  country  and  their  countrymen,  and 
who  acknowledge  that  the  toiling  millions  are 
"  The  People,"  and  the  few  hundred  thousands 
who  live  on  the  interest  of  money  are  only  an 
insignificant  minority  of  the  people.  \Ye  ex- 
pect, or  at  least  wish,  that  lcd>or  and  humcuiity 
shall  be  considered  superior  to  capital,  and 
should  be  first  protected  and  fostered  by  just 
enactments.  It  is  extreme  folly  for  the  Govern- 
ment to  destroy  hundreds  of  millions  of  its  own 
money,  and  borrow  other  hundreds  of  millions 
to  replace  it,  paying  high  rates  of  interest  for 
the  same ;  and,  especially,  when  it  is  acknow- 
ledged it  would  increase  the  wealth  of  rich  and 
impoverish  all  of  the  lower  and  middling  classes 
of  society. 

These  men  clamor  about  a  "  crash,  collapse, 
bankruptcy,"  etc.,  in  the  future,  if  we  continue 
to  use  this  money,  professing  to  believe  it 
would  be  a  great  calamity ;  but  are  exerting 
their  utmost  endeavor  to  have  distress  and  ruin 
plunged  upon  the  people  at  once,  and  say  it 
would  be  a  blessing.  May  our  wise,  true,  and 
patriotic  Senators  and  Congressmen  avert 
the  great  calamity  that  the  Destructionists  are 
preparing  for  the  destruction  of  the  Union 
Party  and  our  glorious  Republic. 

There  are  four  men  in  New  York  City  who 
I  are  worth  two  hundred  millions  of  dollars, 
;  five  in  Brooklyn  worth  fifty  millions,  twenty- 
one  other  gentlemen  in  New  York  worth  one 
hundred  and  fifty  millions.  This  money  and 
I  property  in  ten  years  will  accumulate  to  eight 
I  hundred  millions.    In  twenty  years,  sixteen 


59 


OUR  NATIONAL  FINANCES. 


hundred  millions ;  in  thirty  years,  to  thirty-  j 
two  hundred  millions — a  sum  larger,  by  one-  j 
fourth,  than  the  public  debt  of  the  United 
States.  The  property  of  these  persons  pro- 
duces over  and  above  seven  per  cent. — a  sum 
suflBcient  to  pay  the  expenses  of  their  families, 
and  there  will  be  no  diminution  of  the  principal. 

We  state  the  facts,  and  shall  allow  the  read- 
ers to  make  the  deductions,  and  calculate  or  I 
imagine  the  certain  result. 

Mr.  Astor  is  the  largest  landlord  in  the  city, 
and  he  fixes  the  price  of  rents,  and  it  is  well 
known,  and  especially  for  the  last  few  years, 
that  he  has  increased  them  enormously ;  in 
some  cases,  several  hundred  per  cent. 

Much  of  Mr.  Astor's  immense  fortune  has 
been  reaped  by  the  foreclosure  of  mortgages. 
We  are  cognizant  of  a  foreclosure  suit  he  com- 
menced against  a  lady,  on  one  of  the  finest 
stores  in  Broadway,  during  the  panic  of  18G1, 
although  the  interest  was  regularly  paid,  and 
his  agents  were  loaning  on  real  estate  at  the 
time.  The  lady,  who  could  but  ill  afford  it, 
was  forced  to  sacrifice  one  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  dollars ;  and  as  the  lady  was  the  j 
wife  of  tl:e  writer,  the  transaction  is  fully  ap- 
preciated. 

A.  T.  Stewart  is  a  very  enterprising  man, 
but  it  would  be  interesting  to  know  how  many 
hundreds  or  thousands  of  merchants  have 
failed,  and  their  families  rained,  in  conse- 
quence of  his  enormous  capital  and  manner  of 
conducting  business.  It  is  questionable  if 
the  largest  importers  of  foreign  goods  are  the 
most  beneficial  to  the  country. 

Commodore  Vanderbilt,  we  think,  is  one  of 
the  best  business  men,  the  greatest  calculator 
and  financier  the  country  has  ever  produced. 
He  is  engaged  at  the  present  time  in  perfect- 
ing the  consolidation  of  a  number  of  our  great 
railroad  companies,  and  forming  the  greatest 
monopoly  that  has  ever  been  known  in  this 
country  or  in  the  world.  Under  his  able  man- 
agement the  stock  dividends,  and  probably  the 
■tock,  will  be  largely  increased.  It  is  proba- 
ble that  the  roads  and  machinery  will  be  im- 
proved. But  it  is  certain  that  the  public  will 
pay  the  expense,  and  be  subject  to  the  con?ol- 
'dated  power  of  a  giant  monopoly. 


I  Daniel  Drew  is  the  principal  proprietor 
j  of  our  "  floating  palaces,"  and  is  the  greatest 
"  operator"  in  stocks  in  Wall  street,  and  uses 
some  of  the  gains  made  in  cornering  the 
"  bulls  "  and  "  bears  "  of  the  Stock  Exchange 
in  building  theological  seminaries.  This  looks 
like  "cornering"  Satan,  and  compelling  him 
to  furnish  tools  to  demolish  himself.  But  the 
I  question  is  not  one  of  private  character,  but 
one  as  to  the  duty  of  the  Government  under 
the  circumstances.  We  believe  it  is  the  first 
duty  to  protect  the  public  from  the  encroach- 
ments of  capital ;  that  the  rate  of  interest 
should  be  reduced ;  that  the  Government 
should  construct  and  own  the  great  national 
highways,  railroads  and  ship  canals,  and  op- 
erate them  for  the  benefit  of  the  people,  and 
not  repeat  the  folly  of  giving  a  sufficient 
amount  of  bonds  and  lands  to  build  a  road  (as 
it  has  done  in  the  case  of  the  Pacific  Road)  to 
speculators,  who  will  make  it  an  odious  mo- 
nopoly. This  road  should  be  owned  by  the 
public,  and  operated  for  their  benefit. 

There  is  a  plausible,  but  fahe,  argument 
used  in  favor  of  high  rates  for  the  use  of  money 
in  the  United  Statas.  It  is  said  that  in  new 
and  flourishing  countries  like  this  the  people 
can  afford  to  pay  higher  rates  of  interest  than 
the  people  and  governments  of  other  and 
older  nations.  If  we  can,  capitalists  have  no 
right  to  take  advantage  and  appropriate  to 
themselves  the  products  of  labor  without  ren- 
deriug  a  full  equivalent.  Those  who  settle  in 
new  States  suffer  great  deprivations,  and  de- 
serve the  full  value  for  their  enterprise  and 
sufferings,  and  should  not  be  compelled  to  pay 
indirectly  through  the  Government  tax-gath- 
erers, or  directly  to  capitalists,  more  than 
three  per  cent,  for  the  use  of  money,  especially 
as  it  can  be  demonstrated  that  there  is  no  ne- 
cessity for  paying  more. 

General  Grant  is  acknowledged  to  be  one  of 
the  greatest  generals  of  this  age,  or  of  any  age, 
and  is  greatly  beloved  for  his  sterling  quali- 
ties of  head  and  heart ;  his  countrymen  justly 
appreciate  his  invaluable  services,  and  well 
delight  to  bestow  upon  him  the  highest  honors 
and  rewards  of  the  nation. 

The  Republican  statesmen  which  compose 


COXCLUSIOX. 


53 


the  present  Senate  and  House  of  Representa- 
tives guided  the  Ship  of  State  through  the 
fierce  storms  and  dark  mists  of  a  long  and  tre- 
mendous civil  war,  and  by  their  wisdom 
and  prudence,  though  clogged  and  hampered 
by  the  treachery  of  a  President  elected  by  an 
assassin,  and  a  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  work- 
ing secretly  to  "  rehabilitate  "  traitors  and  de- 
stroy the  prosperity  of  the  country,  have 
gained  the  admiration  of  the  wondering  na- 
tions of  the  earth,  and  of  all  just  and  good 
men — have  conquered  armed  rebellion,  dis- 
armed treason  ;  have  installed  freedom  and 
manhood  suffrage ;  have  fed  the  hungry, 
clothed  the  naked,  visited  the  sick,  and  have, 
by  legislative  enactments,  embodied  the  God- 
like principles  of  the  Xew  Testament  and  the 
Declaration  of  our  Independence. 

They  created  a  currency-money  that  has,  iu 
five  short  years,  wrought  millions  of  beneficent 
miracles,  creating  wealth  rivaling  that  of  the 
Indies  and  of  ages,  confounding  the  wisdom 
of  the  wise,  overthrowing  theories  supposed 
to  be  founded  in  truth,  but  rotten  and  false, 
because  oppressive.  Their  record  is  indeed 
glorious. 

But  if,  after  all  of  these  triumphs  in  peace 
and  war,  they  now  allow  the  interests  of  the 
masses  to  be  sacrificed  to  avarice  and  capital- 
ists, their  glory  will  depart,  and  their  power 
will  vanish,  for  the  American  people  are  en- 
lightened, and  determined  to  be  free  and  in- 
dependent. 

CONCLUSION. 

We  wish  Congress  and  the  public  not 
to  lose  sight  of  the  important  fact,  that  the 
capitalists  are  not  so  much  opposed  to  the 
kind  of  money  in  circulation,  as  to  the  quanti- 
ty. And  this  puzzles  some  honest  men,  who 
cannot  understand  why  they  do  not  assist 
them  in  their  efforts  to  "  resume  specie  payment 
note''  Cheap  money  and  low  rates  of  interest 
is  what  they  are  fighting  against,  but  under 
cover,  and  this  interpets  their  haste  to  have 
Congress  issue  long  bonds. 

They  are  aware  that  the  Government,  having 
a  monopoly  of  the  currency,  possess  the  power 
of  altering  the  rate  of  interest.  They  deny  it, 
and  denounce  the  principle,  but  they  know  it 


j  is  true,  and  they  know  if  the  Government  uses 
I  Treasury  notes  freely,  it  will,  or  can,  control 
I  the  money  market,  and  they  also  know,  if  it 
i  reduces  the  rate  of  interest,  and  issues  long  3- 
per-cent.  gold  bonds,  that  it  will  very  soon  be 
able  to  resume  specie  payments.  They  profess 
to  believe  that  the  bills  of  the  National  banks 
are  superior  to  the  Treasury  notes.  But  as 
the  Government  dues,  revenue,  taxes,  etc.,  are 
paid  in  greenbacks,  they  j  ossess  a  value  inde- 
pendent of  their  being  convertible  into  specie. 
And  everybody  should  know  the  logical  and 
indisputable  fact  that  the  rate  of  interest  ex- 
pands and  increases  trade,  industry  and  pro- 
duction, or  dwarfs  it  and  contracts  improve- 
ments and  decreases  the  demand  for  labor,  for 
these  rise  and  fall  with  the  same  regularity 
and  precision  that  a  thermometer  indicates 
the  state  of  the  atmosphere,  high  rates  or 
price  for  money  freeze  up  the  fountain-springs 
and  streams  of  genial  prosperity.  Low  rates, 
cheap  money,  is  genial  sunshine  making- 
glad  the  whole  face  of  society,  filling  the 
ivers  and  brooks  with  the  pleasant  music,  and 
hum  of  contentment,  of  well-rewarded  labor. 

The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  should  not  be 
allowed  to  exchange  gold  bonds  for  those  bear- 
ing interest  in  currency  and  especially  the  5-20 
for  10-40.    The  Government  should  authorize 
.  $1,500,000,000  of  thirty-year  3-per-cent.  bonds, 
and  increase  the  circulation  of  Treasury  notes 
.  gradually  during  the  next  five  years  to  the 
i  amount  of  the  public  debt,  not  including  the 
I  111,500,000,000  of  8  per  cents. 
I     If  Congress  lias  sufiicient  pluck  and  wisdom 
I  to  do  this,  the  cry  of  distress  will  be  forever 
I  hushed.  In  all  this  broad  and  rich  land  joy  and 
j  gladness  will  sing  the  songs  of  peace  and 
i  plenty,  repudiation  and  revolution  will  be  for- 
I  gotten,  the  South  will  blossom  like  the  rose, 
j  the  Western  States  will   leap   like  young 
i  giants,  the  North  and  East  will  level  the 
j  mountains  and  fill  up  the  valleys,  the  rich  will 
grow  richer,  until  the  next,  and  more  enlight- 
1  ened  generation,  which  will  compel  them  to 
i  loan  money  at  one  per  cent.,  or  compel  the 
!  Government  to  furnish  a  means,  or  measure  of 
;  values,  to  exchange  property  and  labor,  at  cost. 
j     The    parties    stand  divided    at  present, 
nearlv  on  this  wise  :  a  few  hundred  million- 


54 


OUR  NATIONAL  FINANCES. 


aires,  several  thousand  ricli  bankers  and  mer- 
chants, and  two  or  three  millions  who  live 
upon  fixed  incomes  and  no  income,  hangers- 
on  to  society — all  of  them  of  course  are  shout- 
ing to  their  utmost  for  contraction,  specie  pay- 
ments, long  bonds,  etc.    These  are  flanked 
and  sustained  by  the  foreign  merchants  and 
their  agents,  and  by  the  "  bear "  speculators 
for  a  fall  in  prices.    They  will  "  bet,"  sell 
stocks  "short,"  grain,  pork  to  any  amount,  and 
swear  that  the  finances,  the  Constitution  and 
the  country  are  going  to  destruction.    Of  all 
speculators,  the  "  bears  "  are  the  worst.  They 
are  continually  prophecying  evil,  and  delay 
progress  and  improvements,  for  they  serious- 
ly alarm  the  timid.    These  classes  swarm  at 
the  White  House  and  in  the  Committee 
Rooms  and  lobbies  of  Congress,  flattering,  bul- 
lying and  buying  the  members.    The  other 
division  is  composed  of  some  thirty-jive  mil- 
lions of  the  bone  and  sinew  of  the  country.  In 
order  to  gain  a  subsistence  and  support  their 
families  respectably,  they  are  so  constantly 
occupied  as  to  scarcely  find  time  to  study  or 
think  on  the  financial  question.    The  major-  j 
ity  of  these  men  who  reason  and  reflect  have  [ 
faith  in  Congress.    These  are  the  people  that  j 
buy  and  sell,  pull  down  and  build  up,  spin  j 
and  weave,  dig  gold  and  potatoes,  make  ships  | 
and  erect  palaces,  excavate  canals  and  build  | 
railroads,  plant  wheat  and  cotton,  raise  beef  j 
and  pork — in  short,  they  create  the  wealth  of 
the  nation,  and  support  the  Government  in  ' 
peace  or  war.  j 


The  former  class  insist  that  the  present 
Congress  shall  follow  the  beaten  track  of  the 
old  Democratic  Administrations,  and  allow  the 
millionaires  of  New  York  and  Boston  to 
mould  the  affairs  of  the  Government,  to  re- 
strict the  circulation  of  money,  and  give  the 
Money  Kings  the  exclusive  control  of  the 
finances,  and  allow  them  to  depress  the  price 
of  labor  and  the  products  of  industry  ;  to  make 
money  scarce  and  dear,  which  is  their  beau 
ideal  of  "  healthy  times."  The  working  mil- 
lions, on  the  otJier  hand,  by  the  sudden  con- 
traction of  the  currency  last  season,  received 
an  unexpected  blow  which  opened  their  eyes 
The  cause  was  so  plain,  and  stood  out  in  such 
bold  relief,  that  none  but  the  most  stupid  and 
stolid  failed  to  see  it.  They  not  only  saw,  but 
felt.  They  were  alarmed,  and  have  made  up 
their  minds  that  Labor,  before  Capital  invest- 
ed in  gold-bearing  bonds,  drawing  extortion- 
ate rates  of  usury,  should  be,  and  must  be, 
protected,  and  woe  to  the  politician  or  party 
of  whatever  name  or  profession  that  ignores 
this  just  and  righteous  verdict.  Dainty  or 
bloated  capitalists,  with  money-bags  and 
jewel-cases  filled  with  gold  and  diamonds,  and 
iron  safes  filled  with  Government  bonds  must 
stand  aside  for  the  toiling  millions,  who  raise 
the  bread,  make  the  cloth,  and  build  the 
houses  that  shelter,  feed  and  clothe  mankind. 
Capitalists,  please  stand  out  of  the  way,  and 
give  these  men  an  opportunity.  Stand  back, 
gentlemen  !    Stand  back  ! 


NOTICE 


This  Pamphlet  is  the  last  we  shall  publish  upon  the  subject  of  the  National 
Finances.  When  we  wrote  the  first  we  had  no  thought  of  writing  a  second, 
or  third,  or  fifteen.  But  "  the  exigencies  of  the  times"  seem  to  call  for  them. 
And  we  arc  elated  to  know  that  tlie  doctrines  and  principles  wliich  we  began 
to  promulgate  in  1861,  are  now,  and  will  be  hereafter,  fully  discussed  by  the 
people  of  the  United  States.  Thorough  discussion  by  an  enlightened  ])eople 
will  elicit  the  truth.  And  the  important  truths  that  have  been  demonstrated 
bv^  the  free  use  of  Government  Paper  Money — Bills  of  Credit — cannot  be  liid 
from  the  public. 

The  systems  of  the  English,  French  and  German  theorists,  as  to  what  con- 
stitutes 3/o>?.?//,have  been  exploded.  Actual  demonstration  and  common  sense 
cannot  be  obscured  hereafter  by  fine  sentences  and  the  smooth  rhetoric  of 
polished  writers. 

A  large  number  of  gentlemen  have  requested  complete  sets  of  our  pam- 
phlets, whitdi  we  could  not  furnish.  Believing  that  they  contain  considerable 
original  thought  and  a  large  amount  of  important  and  valuable  information 
(they  contain  a  complete  history  of  the  fight  between  the  Bullionists  and  the 
friends  of  Paper  Money,  etc.,  their  arguments  pro  and  co//,)  we  expect  to 
republish  them  the  coming  Summer,  in  an  elegant  volume.  We  pro]»()se  to 
print  it  with  superior  type  and  paper,  and  have  them  splendidly  l>ound  in 
cloth,  and  ornamented  with  gold,  which  is  oidy  fit  for  ornament.  The  book 
will  contain  about  400  large  pages.  Price  §2.  Persons  desiring  to  procure 
a  copy  will  be  supplied  by  sending  their  orders  to  our  Printer. 


